


Spirit of a Lion

by Marvel_ously_Me



Series: The White Lion [1]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: F/M, Lions Have Feelings, Magic, Sentient Lions
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-11
Updated: 2017-01-12
Packaged: 2018-09-16 22:29:45
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 12
Words: 48,746
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9292226
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Marvel_ously_Me/pseuds/Marvel_ously_Me
Summary: When a mysterious figure appears on the roof of the Galaxy Garrison building just minutes before an alien ship crashes to Earth, carrying a pilot that had been missing in space for months, it’s only the beginning.Lion space ships, a sleeping princess in a castle, and an alien empire bent on the conquering of the entire universe are just a few of the strange things that 5 humans, dragged into the middle of a war in space, encounter.Finding out that they can form the most powerful weapon ever created, and are the universe’s last hope of ever being free, they can’t imagine there could be anything else that could surprise them.But, from the very start of their adventure it is clear that the mysterious figure knows more than they let on. As they learn more about this figure and their past, they will discover that there is plenty left for them to be surprised by.**This fic follows season 1 of Voltron with my OC Leona, otherwise known as Lee





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> So hello out there wonderful people who have taken an interest in my story! This is my first posting on AO3, and I am really excited to be sharing this with you! I fell in love with Voltron and all of it's characters, but I felt that some interesting dynamics and interactions could be explored by introducing a new character. I wrote this story episode by episode, and tried to stay as close to the show as possible while including my character and ideas. So in some places, direct dialogue is taken from the show, and when events directly follow what happened in the show, then they will be quickly skimmed over. After all, you've seen the show, no need for me to write down what you already know happens! So, with all that out of the way, go forth and (hopefully) enjoy!!

The Elders sat in a circle, meditating. They were tuned into the magic and essence of the universe; waiting. The oldest of them, their leader, observed it’s trembling in curiosity, and surprise. Never before had she seen the universe quaking in such anticipation. She knew then, that this child would be special.

The Belinors had existed on the planet Altea for as long as any being or book had knowledge of. They lived alongside the Alteans peacefully, content to allow them to take up leadership, and rule the planet. The Belinors, despite being an ancient race, were a relatively minor race when it came to population. They lived in small clans, generally formed between a few families, led by Elders. The one exception was a large clan that lived just outside the capital city of Altea, where the royal family lived in their castle. And this was because the two species shared a common goal; the continued well-being of the universe. 

The Belinors were a race of magical beings, whose main purpose was to help maintain balance, both on their planet, and in the rest of the universe. The Belinors were born with an affinity for a certain type of magic, as well as a limit to the power and strength they would have. This limit was decided by how well their resonance matched to the universe; this was how they were able to wield their magic. 

The older the Belinor, the more attuned they would become to the universe, and the more they would be able to do, and see. The universe recognized that the Belinors were seeking to help maintain balance, and so every time a Belinor was born, the Elders would receive a vision, to indicate the child’s future, or potential, in some way.   
What they would see is the child’s spirit animal. The animal in the vision would be indicative of the child’s personality or spirit. The colour the animal appeared would show the type of magic the child would have an affinity for; green for earth related magic, blue for water, and so on. The brighter the colour was, the more closely attuned that type of magic was to the universe. 

Yellow denoted a more mystic magic, and was generally only found in the more powerful of the race, since they were more closely connected to the essence of the universe. Most of the Elders who lead the clans had an affinity for yellow magic. The one with the strongest affinity for yellow magic in the history of the Belinors, was the Elder who was currently leader of the largest tribe. Her magic was a bright, brilliant yellow, and her visions were exceptionally clear, and accurate.

The spirit animals in the visions could come in any colour or shade imaginable; except for two. Dark purple was never seen in any Belinor, for that magic was indicative of the Druids. The Druids were another race of magic users in the universe, and they were a dark race who used their magic to do all sorts of evil and unnatural things. The only other colour never seen before, was white. While the Belinors could not decide the exact reason white was never seen, the most commonly accepted theory was that it signified some type or level of magic that no Belinor had ever possessed.

Lastly, the size of the animal within the vision was a prediction of how strong the child would be, as it showed the extent to which they would be attuned to the universe. The largest in recorded history was the size of an average hut, though most were simply sized as normal for the animal.

And so the Elders tuned into the universe, awaiting the moment the child was born, for a glimpse as to what would be the child’s future. Then, suddenly, a vision overtook them. As the child entered the world, a massive, shimmering figure rose, as high as the mountains around them, and as the child let out its first cry, an earth-shattering roar erupted from the beast’s mouth.

 

The mother lay, tired but content, as she held her baby; a girl. Her husband sat by her bedside, and they both gazed in adoration at the tiny being. A knock at the door drew their gaze, and they looked up to see the Elders’ leader, standing in the doorway. She was welcomed in, excitement buzzing in the new parents.

The Elder walked into the room, silently moving to the bedside and regarding the baby. The parents looked at her expectantly, anticipation building, but respectfully waiting for her to speak first.

“This child has a great destiny ahead of her. Of all the visions I’ve received, and the children that’ve been born in my time, I have never before seen such potential in any of our people.” The Elder spoke, voice grave. The parents looked at each other, proud, but worried as to what it could mean. Yet, the excitement couldn’t be completely abated. 

“And what of the vision? What did you see?” The father asked, as the mother tightened her grip on her little girl, glancing down at her.

The Elder reached out a hand, gently touching the child’s forehead. The baby opened its eyes, and the Elder could hear an echo of the roar.

“A great, white lion.”


	2. Episode 1

Pidge, Lance and Hunk were all on the roof of the Galaxy Garrison building. Pidge has equipment spread out around, trying to listen to something, while Lance and Hunk were, as typical, being annoyances. They are interrupted when a light shines from behind them. Fearing they’ve been caught, they whip around, only to see a white light hovering about 10 feet behind them. As they watch, the light grows, and brightens until they are forced to look away from the intensity. 

Then, just as suddenly as it appears, the light dies out, and they turn back around, eyes struggling to adjust as dots dance in their view. Through their adjusting vision, they are able to see a figure standing there, but it isn’t until they have their full sight back to normal, that they are able to make out any features. 

A girl is standing before them; she looks to be around their age. She has mid-shade blonde hair, which is tied back into a braid hanging down her back. She is wearing a fitted long sleeve shirt and a pair of pants; both are white. From her wrists to elbows, and ankles to knees, she has silver bracers, which look like some sort of metal armour. Hanging around her neck is a pendant, with the head of a lion in the middle in white, and a red ring surrounding the lion’s head. 

The girl looked around her, before her eyes caught on the cadets. She stepped towards them, and as she got closer they noticed that both hers and her lion amulet’s eyes were the same shade of green. She was average height, and her skin was a lightly tanned shade. Besides her clothes, and the way she had appeared, she would seem just like any other teenager. She stopped in front of them, and gave them each a once over. Lance quickly recovered at seeing she was a pretty girl.

“Hey, name’s Lance. You come here often?” He says, pretending to lean against something while crossing his arms.

“Hello, I am Leona. And I’m not sure; where is here?” The girl asked, and Hunk and Pidge exchanged looks, while Lance just continued on undeterred. 

“Well this is the Galaxy Garrison base, and I’m one of the fighter pilots here. This is Pidge, and Hunk; they’re a part of my crew.” Lance says, reluctantly introducing the others, not wanting her attention diverted, but hoping to impress her by showing her he’s a pilot with his own crew. Leona quickly glances back to him, eyes narrowing as she regards him closer.

“Hmm.” She says, before looking to the other two, and studying them as well. Then she glances around at all the other buildings around them. “There are other pilots here, too, then?”

Lance deflates, while Hunk and Pidge both laugh at his expense. Meanwhile, Leona has walked closer to where Pidge’s equipment is spread out. 

“Well, I mean yeah, but why would you need any other pilots when you have me?” He asks, but she doesn’t even turn to face him anymore, now crouching down beside Pidge.

“What is all of this for?” She asks, seemingly not even hearing Lance. Pidge turns to her, nervously hoping that she won’t try to touch everything like Hunk did. Leona however, kept her hands resting on her knees where she crouched. 

“Um, well I’m using it all to search for something.” Pidge replies, wanting to keep it vague so as not to freak the girl out. After all, talk of aliens is not always a widely accepted topic for conversations with strangers. At hearing this though, Leona turns, an interested look on her face.

"I am searching for something as well!” She exclaimed, and finally Hunk spoke up from behind her.

“What are you looking for?” He asked, and Leona turned to look over her shoulder at him.

“Someone who needs my help.” She said simply, and the three cadets gave each other confused looks.

“Well, I’m sorry, but this equipment won’t be able to help with that.” Pidge told her, and Leona shrugged, standing up straight. She moved to stand on the edge of the roof, looking up towards the sky.

“No matter. I can feel it now, they will be here soon.” She stated, still watching the dark night sky. She could hear them talking behind her, but ignored them in favour of trying to focus on the feeling in her gut. It was telling her that the reason she was brought here was moments away. Then, suddenly, something appeared, falling from the stars. In a fiery streak, it moved across the sky before landing with an almighty crash in the distance. Leona turns at hearing them say they are going to go and check it out.

“Well it seems we were all looking for the same thing after all. I will come with you.” She says, and they can’t argue, as she is already running, and they have to hurry to catch up with her. The four of them arrive close to the crash site, stopping a short distance away so as not to be seen. Pidge hacks into the cameras, and they see a guy strapped to a table inside the tent. Lance says his name is Shiro, and he went missing on a mission to Kerberos. The young man, Shiro, is strapped to a table, and he is yelling about aliens attacking.

“We have to get him out.” Pidge says, and Leona looks over, before nodding.

“I agree.” She says, standing up. She moves as if to go towards the cliff edge, and the tent beyond it. Before she can take more than a step or two, she is pulled backwards by 3 pairs of arms.

“What are you doing? We need a plan.” Lance hisses, and she yanks herself free, moving away before they could try to pull her back again.

“I do not have time for this.” She says, before raising a hand to her pendant. Her eyes close, as she concentrates.

A light shines from behind her hand, and as she moves it the pendant rises from around her neck, hovering in mid-air. The red ring separates, lengthening and straightening, until it forms a baton, which Leona grabs with her right hand. The lion’s head spins around, growing as it did, until it was a disk large enough to stand on, still floating in front of her. Leona grabs this in her left hand, holding it by her side.

As the rest of them are frozen in shock, she turns, and begins running towards the edge of the cliff. They snap out of their shock, beginning to yell after her to stop, but when she reaches the cliff edge, she leaps off. They scramble to the edge, afraid they’ll see her splattered on the ground, but instead she is standing on the disk, almost surfing down the side of the cliff. She aims for an area which is curved up, and using it as a ramp, she flies into the air. Flying high above all the activity, she goes until she is just above the tent, before making her disk shrink again. As she begins to fall, it reattaches to her necklace. 

Leona drops through the top of the tent, ripping a hole through it, and landing to one side of Shiro. She lands in a crouch, before slowly rising, and looking at one of the scientists. It is the one who injected Shiro, and he stares at her in shock. Before he can make a sound, she swings out her baton, hitting him in the chest and sending him flying. Any crashing sound he may have made is drowned out by the sound of explosions a little bit away.

Out of the corner of her eye, Leona sees one of the other scientist rushing around the table to come at her. She flicks her baton back out towards the downed scientist, and it unravels into a whip, wrapping around him. With a huge yank, she pulls, sending his unconscious body into the other scientist, and they both land in a heap in the corner. She looks around, seeing the last scientist making a break for it, and so she flips over the table holding Shiro, flicking her wrist, she forms the whip back into a baton. She lands in front of the scientist, who skids to a stop.

She flings the arm with the baton out, and the scientist flinches. Taking advantage of his distraction, she gathers herself, before leaping straight up in the air, kicking her legs up and forwards, she kicks the man in the chest, sending him flying onto the heap of his colleagues. As she is doing this, she hears the door whoosh open, and someone enter, but she is too preoccupied to be able to look over. Her momentum sends her falling backwards, so she twists her body, landing on her hands and rolling herself over, to end up in a crouch.

She slowly rises up, baton held out slightly to her side, ready to use it, if need be. What she sees is a guy with black hair approaching the table. He is wearing a mask, and a red jacket, and as he gets closer to the unconscious man on the table, Leona tenses. Once he gets close, he pushes the mask down with one hand, the other reaching out and turning the face towards him, eyes widening as he sees who it is.

“Shiro?” He whispers, and Leona watches carefully from across the table. The guy pulls out a knife, and she is ready to jump over the table and tackle him, but with a swift movement, he cuts the binding holding Shiro down. He has Shiro up, supporting almost his entire weight as he moves towards the door. He jerks to a halt when Leona appears between the two men and the door.

Leona and he regard each other warily, before he shifts, trying to move backwards as she comes towards him. Not able to move far because of his cargo, he is then surprised as she takes up Shiro’s other side, and between the two of them they are able to share his weight, and move more efficiently.

“Hey, um, I’m Keith.” He introduces, as they carry Shiro out of the tent.

“Leona.” She replies, and that is all that needs said. They turn towards Keith’s speeder once out, but haven’t got very far when the three from before catch up. 

“Here, Leona, let me take him from you. I’m sure you’re probably tired after that total beat down you delivered in there.” Lance offers.

“I’m fine.” Leona dismisses his offer, and so Lance turns his attention to his rival instead.

“Yeah, well Keith is probably weaker than you anyway, so maybe I should take his side instead.” Lance says, and Keith scoffs.

“Keep dreaming kid.” He says, and Lance splutters, angry at being called kid. Before he can argue more though, Hunk says that the soldiers are coming back, and they all rush over to Keith’s vehicle.

“Hey do you mind if we catch a ride?” Hunk asks as he jumps onto the back of the vehicle. The sudden shift sends everyone flying, except for Leona who uses the momentum to drag Shiro on board. She feels a weight fall against her leg, and looks down to see Pidge had fallen against her. 

“Is this thing going to be big enough for all of us?” Asks Pidge, pushing back upright, as Lance climbs aboard. Lance and Pidge both grab hold of Shiro, and Leona climbs forward to perch behind where Keith sits in the driver’s seat.

“No.” He mutters, and they can see the soldiers approaching.

“Doesn’t matter, we have to go.” Leona says, and Keith gets it moving, spinning around to fly away from their pursuers. As they drive, Lance lets go of Shiro, and Pidge grumbles about having to hold him.

“Can’t this thing go any faster?” Lance demands.

“We can toss out some non-essential weight.” Keith replies, and Lance looks around to find something, before cluing in. 

“You’re right.” Leona says, before standing up.

“Hey, wha-?” Keith is interrupted as he is about to ask her what she is doing, when she crouches down before back flipping up, and over the vehicle, disappearing behind it. 

“Look what you did!” Lance yells, and Keith remains silent, not having the time to try and figure out what the heck just happened. He speeds up, when suddenly the guys in the back quiet down, and he wonders why, until he sees something out of the corner of his eye. He looks over, doing a double take, before having to forcibly wrench his gaze back to his driving, as he couldn’t believe his eyes. This girl was keeping up with his vehicle, riding on some sort of strange floating disk.

Leona can hear Keith shouting instructions to Hunk, in order to maneuver them. Expertly she leans and is able to keep right up with them. She can hear some of the vehicles pursuing them get taken out, and then they jump a chasm. She rides the curve of the cliff-side like a half pipe, ending up flying sideways above them. When they get to the end of that section, she slows a bit, allowing them to get ahead, before zooming down the curve, cutting off one vehicle and causing it to swerve into the wall, while she shoots off after the guys.

They are approaching a cliff, and right as they get close to it, Leona catches up. She leaps off the cliff right as they do, and as the guys plummet screaming, she tilts herself until she is vertical, head facing the ground. As they fall, she lets out a whoop, until finally, they start approaching the ground. She continues to allow herself to fall, even after Keith has begun to pull up, and she can hear the guys starting to yell, but it isn’t until she is just feet from the ground that she flips around, disk toward the ground. She crouches, bringing the disk up to a 45 degree angle from the ground, she leans backwards, and just barely misses scraping along the ground. She skims along the ground, dust being kicked up, until she can jump her disk back up, once again flying alongside the guys.

They make it back to a hut in the middle of nowhere, and when Keith shows all of them his board, with all the information he had found, she is astounded. When Shiro is done examining it all, she steps forward.

“This is incredible.” She says, eyes flicking from one thing to the next quickly, an awed look on her face. She looks over to Keith, a small smile on her face. He fidgets, before looking away. Leona turns back to the board, gently running her fingers over the picture of one of the lion drawings. “Originally, I had thought that you, Shiro, were the reason I was brought here. But while it’s true you needed help, I am sure now that the rest of you would have been able to rescue him fine on your own.” 

“Speaking of that, I suppose I should thank all of you for rescuing me.” Shiro says, reaching out to shake hands with all of them. 

Eventually, they all end up out in the desert, searching for the mysterious Voltron. Leona hangs back, following the others as they search it out. Hunk’s detector leads them to a cave, filled with carvings of lions. The guys walk in, looking around in awe. Keith realizes that Leona is not with the rest of them, and looks around for her. When he looks behind them, he sees her beside one of the drawings.

She reaches towards it, stroking a hand down its side, almost like she’s petting it. He sees the drawing flash blue for a second, but blinks and it’s gone. However, he does see her smile affectionately at it. When it seems like she is going to turn back, he whips around facing forward again. He wonders over what he just saw, and how they really don’t know anything about her.

Leona catches up with the group again just in time for Lance to place his hand on one of the carvings. They light up, shining the same blue Keith had seen earlier when Leona touched one, but this time they all light up, and stay lit. The ground lights up before dropping out from under them, and everyone is caught off guard except for Leona, who manages to keep her feet under her, riding the stream of water like she did her disk. When they reach the end, the boys all shoot out, hitting the small, shallow pool at the bottom. When Leona exits the faux water slide, she lands crouched on her feet. However, she still gets drenched when Hunk sends up a wave of water that douses over her. She stands up, her wet clothes somehow becoming even more skin-tight than they already were, and gives her head a flick to try and remove some water. She sees Keith sprawled out in front of her, and so she offers him a hand, pulling him up when he accepts it.

“How did you do that?” He asks, as they remain standing in the puddle while the rest of the group moves away.

“I am used to surprises.” Leona replies, a wry smile twisting her lips. She moves away, following the others, while Keith hesitates a moment. With everything that she says and does, she becomes more and more of an enigma, and Keith wants to understand.

They catch up to the others, who stand in front of a giant lion, encased inside a blue force field.

“Is this it? Is this the Voltron?” Pidge asks.

“It must be.” Shiro replies.

“This is not Voltron.” Leona states, and they all turn to look at her. “Well, not completely.”

Keith decides that he isn’t going to figure out who she is anytime soon, so he chooses to ignore what she said, so as not to drive himself crazy wondering. 

“This must be what was causing all those crazy energy readings.” He says instead, and the others keep talking. Keith runs up, moving to touch the barrier, but nothing happens. However, when Lance knocks on it, it suddenly disappears. And all of them see a vision of a giant robot.

“That was Voltron.” Leona says, smile on her face. Keith whirls around, staring at her.

“Okay, how do you know? Why does it seem like you know a lot more than you’re letting on?” He demands.

“Whoa, take it easy man.” Lance says, but Keith just continues to stare down Leona, who with a sigh and a rueful smile, steps forward.

“No, he is right.” She says, and they all snap towards her. All their faces, even Keith’s look shocked. 

“He’s right?”, “I’m right?” Both Lance and Keith speak up at the same time.

“Yes. I have not been completely forthcoming with all that I know. But I only withheld information because I had to be sure.” She explains, staring at Keith, pleading that he will understand.

“Sure of what?” Shiro asks, and she breaks her gaze from Keith’s to look at him. Before she can answer, the blue lion suddenly moves, dropping its head to the ground, and opening up a door, right in front of where Lance is standing.

“That.” She replies, and they all follow Lance into the lion. They all file into the cockpit, Lance taking the pilot’s seat. Leona watches as Lance seems to phase out for a second, before asking if anyone else heard anything. As soon as he start to press buttons, Leona turns to Keith, who is standing beside her, just behind the pilot’s chair. 

“Hold on.” She says, and he turns to give her a funny look.

“Why?” He asks, and she turns back to face forward.

“Just trust me.” She says, and then Lance pushes forward the controls, and the lion leaps forward, bursting from the rock, and firing up thrusters which allow it to fly. It ends up flying upwards, and doing a slight barrel roll, and the guys are all screaming and grabbing onto whatever they can. Keith ends up grabbing onto Leona with one arm, who smirks at him.

They take down an alien ship that was approaching Earth, and then as they lead the aliens away, a wormhole appears in front of them. They don’t know where it is headed, and Lance differs to Shiro for a decision. He looks over at Leona, to see if she has any idea where this may be going, but she shrugs. There is no guarantee where this may go, and she had only just discovered they had been on Earth. Shiro decides that the Lion must know what it is doing, and they go through the wormhole. When they emerge, Shiro says he doesn’t recognize any of the constellations.

“I do.” Leona says, and when they turn towards a certain planet, she sucks in a breath, but refuses to say anything about where they are going.

“I don’t know if any of you noticed, but this is an alien warship.” Keith says, and Leona turns to him, solemn look on her face.

“None of you have anything to fear from the lions, or Voltron.” She says, completely serious, and even Keith can’t doubt what she says.

Shiro speaks up, saying they have to work together, and asks where they are going. Lance pranks them all, saying he hears something, and when they all listen in, he farts. Leona along with the rest of them plugs her nose.

“Way to impress a lady.” Keith mocks, and Lance struggles to justify himself, but can’t. So instead, he says sullenly: “There’s a castle right there.”

They exit the lion to stand in front of the castle. The lion roars, opening the door, and they enter the castle. They get scanned for identification. After scanning the castle says: “Welcome back, Leona.”

The guys all turn to her, and she looks around and smiles. “Good to be back.”

They follow the path of lights to the control room, where two pods rise from the ground. One opens up, and a young woman falls out of it. Lance catches her, and she starts questioning who they are, and where she is. She asks about his ears, and what is wrong with them, before pulling his arm behind his back and forcing him to his knees. Before any of them can make another move, Leona steps forward. 

“Allura.” She calls softly, and Allura freezes, looking up. She searches for the one who called her name, a voice so familiar, until Leona steps out from behind the guys, and towards her. As she is revealed, the woman gasped.

“It cannot be. Leona, is that you?” She asks, dropping Lance’s arm, who then sulks away, wounded pride only. 

“It’s me.” Leona replies, smiling, and despite it seeming like these two know each other, the guys can’t help but tense when Allura rushes towards Leona, after just attacking one of them. Leona however, only opens up her arms, and the two hug tightly. 

“Leona, what has happened? Where are we? And how long have we been asleep?” Allura asks, and Leona shakes her head. 

“If I remember correctly, I believes we are on Arus, but this is not where I woke up. I appeared on the planet Earth, and was able to find these humans. We were all brought here by the Blue Lion. But I have no idea how long it has been.” Leona explains, and Allura moves to the control panel, pulling up a screen. 

Suddenly, the other pod opens, revealing Coran, and he and Lance immediately begin to argue. Leona’s attention is drawn to them, rolling her eyes as they describe the moves they would use, as she listens to the two of them brag about their fighting skills.

“It cannot be! We’ve been asleep 10 000 years!” Allura exclaims, and Leona spins to stare at her in shock.

“10 000 years?! Allura, how- how could this be?” Leona asks, moving to stand beside her. The guys watch as the girl who had seemed so calm and in control, was now breaking in front of them. “Our families. Everyone that we knew, they will all be dead. How could this have happened?”

“We were being attacked. Planet Altea, and all the others in our solar system were destroyed. My father is gone, our entire civilization. Zarkon.” Allura says, and Leona is stunned, tuning out of the conversation. She can only think about how her entire planet, her entire solar system had been destroyed. She wondered if any had survived, outside of her, Allura, and Coran. She tunes back in when Coran says that they are the last Alteans alive. She steps forward, a pleading look on her face. 

“Allura, what of me? Did any of my…?” Leona asks, trailing off before finishing the sentence. Allura however, understood, and she stepped towards Leona, a terribly saddened look on her face. 

“I am sorry, Leona, but it seems as though all on our planet perished when it was destroyed. While Coran and I share the burden of being last of our kind, you alone must bear yours.” She says, grimly, but gently. Leona steps back, shaking her head. 

“Wait, wait, hold on. If you aren’t the same as them, then what are you?” Hunk asks, and everyone but Leona turns to him, giving him a look. “Oh, right, sorry. Not the time.”

“You are right. Now is not the time to be focusing on myself. Zarkon wants Voltron, and if he gets it he will destroy everything. Right now, we have to focus on forming Voltron, and any personal problems can wait until later.” Leona says, gathering herself, and forming a strong front again.

Allura brings up a map of sorts, to show where all the lions are. She tells them all which lion is theirs, based on their personality. As she is saying this, Leona hangs back, content to just watch their faces, as even the surly Keith smiles when seeing his lion. When the image of Voltron is formed, she feels the same awe as she does every time she sees it.

They all split up, and Keith is left at the castle, since they don’t know his lion’s coordinates yet. As the others leave, Leona sees that Keith is upset at being left behind, and so she steps over to him.

“Come with me.” She says, and Keith turns to her in surprise.

“What? Where?” He asks, and she just smiles, tilting her head.

“Come and find out.” She says, and Keith looks over to Allura and Coran, before looking back to Leona.

“But what about finding my lion?” He asks, and she steps back, holding her hand out and beckoning him to follow her.

“Just standing around is not going to help find it. But, I think I may be able to.” She says, and with one last look back, Keith moves to follow her. Leona grabs onto his hand, pulling him along behind her. Allura, who until that moment had been pointedly not looking away from her screen, glanced up to watch Leona drag Keith from the room by the hand, and she smiled. Leona drags Keith around, until finally she drops his hand. She turns to him, and smiles.

“When we were children, Allura and I spent hours exploring all over this castle. Of all the rooms and places we discovered, this was always my favourite.” She says, before pushing a door open. It reveals a balcony, and Leona steps out, Keith following. He sees that they are at the top of one of the castle’s towers, and looking out, they can see an incredible distance. Keith steps forward, to the railing.

“Whoa.” He says, and Leona steps up beside him.

“Up here, it’s so relaxing. It is a great place to go when you need to think. And it had the best view of the sunset and sunrise.” She says, and a wistful smile takes over her face. She turns, sitting down on the floor. She pats the spot across from her, and after a slight hesitation, Keith sits down too.

“Your lion, the Red Lion is temperamental, that is true. But, you see, that is only because the Red Lion feels the most. The Red Lion has the strongest emotions, the deepest feelings, and because of that, it can be hard to control. Because the Red Lion, more so than any other, is an emotional creature, it’s pilot must have an emotional connection with it. You have to bond with it Keith. Once you and your lion can become completely attuned, there will be nothing you cannot do together. However, to reach that point, you first have to find your lion, and prove yourself to it. I can help you find your lion by guiding you through a simple mediation, allowing your mind to reach out and find your lion’s.” Leona explains, and Keith looks nervous. She smiles reassuringly, holding out her hands palm up to him. Looking into her eyes, he reaches out, placing his hands on hers.

She guides him into a meditative state, by encouraging him to take deep breaths, and clear his mind. Once he has achieved this, she then moves into her own meditative state, and connects to his mind. Neither of them can see into the other’s mind, but this allows her to look for any other thread connecting Keith’s consciousness to another. She finds the red string, showing it to Keith, and trailing along behind as he follows it. They see the location of the Red Lion, and once she knows that, and sees that Keith is starting to form a bond, Leona retreats, leaving Keith’s mind, and her meditative state. She waits, and only a few minutes later Keith emerges from his with a gasp, hands tightening his grip on hers.   
After a few moments, he comes back fully to himself, and releases her hands. She smiles at him, and there is something about connecting minds, no matter how shallowly, that makes you feel closer with someone. Keith clears his throat.

“Thank you, Leona.” He says, looking into her eyes. She smiles back.

“You’re welcome, Keith. But, I have to say, being that my name is 10 000 years old, perhaps I should be called by something more modern. A nickname, maybe. How about Lee?” She asks. Keith looks over at her, this girl who had been through so much. Whose planet and everyone on it had been destroyed, leaving her the last of her people, and her childhood best friend and one other the last two of theirs. He couldn’t imagine how it must feel, to realize that the villain who destroyed your whole planet was still alive and trying to take over the universe. Keith could see that she desperately wanted something that wouldn’t remind her of the past, something that could help her move on, move forward.

“Yeah, I like Lee.” He replies, smiling at her. Lee gives a bright smile in return, and the two stand up, returning to the control room.

They get down just before the rest of the paladins return. Leona tells them all that Keith discovered where the Red Lion was, and they all congratulate him, until he tells them to hold off on the celebrating, as it’s on a Galran ship heading this way.

Princess Allura says she doesn’t know whether they should flee or fight, and goes off to seek advice, but the paladins continue to argue in her absence, so Lee pipes up.

“We cannot run. I don’t think you understand just how grave our circumstances are. If Zarkon gets his hands on these lions, everything, everyone in the whole universe, on every planet, will be destroyed. If we do not fight, if we do not make a stand, right here, right now, then we are giving up. Then every life destroyed by Zarkon is for nothing!” Lee exclaims, and the pilots look at each other, before making a decision. They will stay, and fight.

Right before they are about to leave, Lee pulls Keith aside for a minute.

“I cannot go with you, but I know that you can do this. You have already found the connection once, you just have to do it again. There is already a bond there, you just have to trust it. Trust yourself.” She says, and he nods. Shiro calls out Keith’s name, and as he moves to leave, they notice that during their talk, they had grabbed hands, and both quickly let go. Keith whirled around, leaving quickly, and neither saw the blush on the other’s face. Both however, were teased, Keith by Shiro, and Lee by Allura.

Lee listens in to the paladins, worried, until she hears Keith say that he got his lion. They head back, and the Black Lion opens up to them. They are out running trying to figure out how to combine to form Voltron, while the 3 in the castle are trying to give them cover. They get trapped in the tractor beam, and are afraid all is lost, when a voice comes through their helmets.

“Listen, I know you can do this. Each of you was chosen for a reason. The lions are yours, they were always meant to be yours. Do you want to know why I appeared on Earth when I did? Why after 10 000 years of sleeping I was awoken? I was meant to wake up only when the time came to defeat Zarkon, and take down the Galran Empire. I know, without any doubt, that you are the rightful paladins. You are Voltron! Now, show me!” She yells, and the team all yells back, “Yeah!” before suddenly they are combining into Voltron.

They destroy the ship, before landing back at the castle. The pilots are all standing around, while Allura, Coran, and Lee rush out of the castle to greet them. As Allura congratulates them, Shiro nudges Keith’s shoulder, who looks up to see Lee rushing towards him. She throws her arms around his neck, pulling him into a hug. One of his arms automatically wraps around her waist, as his balance adjusts, and his other hangs by his side, holding his helmet. They stay like that a few moments, before Lee pulls back, putting her hands on his shoulders.

“I knew you could do it!” She exclaims, and Keith blushes, hoping it would be passed off as being from exertion. 

“Well thanks. I couldn’t have without your help.” He replies, and they stare at each other, smiling, before realizing what they are doing. Lee drops her hands, moving back, and Keith moves one hand to the back of his neck.

Allura begins speaking again, saying that the war is just beginning. She calls them the Defenders of the Universe, and Shiro says he likes the sound of that. They all turn to look at the lions, Lee standing just behind Keith’s shoulder.


	3. Episode 2

“Allura, this is cruel.” Lee says, from where she stands beside the princess, who only ignores her, pulling up a screen, and tapping a few buttons. Allura sets an alarm to blare out through the entire castle, as she announces that they are under attack. Lee throws up her hands, rolling her eyes, and moving to lean against one of the control centers with her arms crossed.

When Coran starts ‘helping’, screaming that Allura is dead, Lee sighs, covering her face with one of her hands. She doesn’t move it until Allura begins lecturing. She sees Shiro, Keith, Pidge and Hunk, only the first in his full uniform, and no Lance at all. She meets eyes with Keith, before rolling her own as Allura continues to admonish, and she can just see the corner of his mouth twitch upwards the slightest. She grins in accomplishment, but then Lance enters, and Allura’s spiel is renewed. Lee pushes off what she was leaning against, moving forwards to stand beside Allura. However, when Allura says that the 3 of them had been up for hours, and decided to test the paladins, who failed, she moves forward more, turning to face Allura.

“Hang on Allura, first of all, I was no part of the ‘pretend we are being attacked to test the pilots’ plan, in fact, I was against it. And, I think you’re being too hard on them. Yes, we’ve been up for hours, but we also didn’t have to learn how to pilot robotic lions, and destroy an alien ship, after just learning life on other planets exists! I think they deserve a bit of a break, after all, they won’t get many more.” Lee defends the paladins, and Allura doesn’t miss how she sides with them, both verbally, and physically, as she stands facing Allura, her back to the paladins.

“They shouldn’t be having any breaks! Not when over the past 10 000 years we’ve received all of these distress beacons. Zarkon has conquered almost all of the universe, and Earth is here. An attack on your planet is inevitable.” Allura says, and the pilots become serious, at seeing how close Zarkon is to having total dominion, and attacking or destroying their planet. As the pilots turn to go to their lions, Allura gives Lee a triumphant look, and Lee sticks her tongue out at the other girl.

 

The paladins have their lions all stacked on top of each other in a pyramid. Lee is listening in as Shiro tells them all to focus on the bond with their lion, and then on forming Voltron. She had been monitoring them the whole time they’d been out there, keeping track of their progress, of which so far there’d been none. When she hears Shiro ask if everyone was focusing, she can’t just silently listen anymore.

“Hey, guys, it’s Lee. Listen, I’ve been monitoring you this whole time, and, if I may, I think you’re going about this the wrong way. Yes, you all need to have close bonds with your lions if you want to be able to fly and fight with them, but forming Voltron is different. Forming Voltron is about all of you combining to become something more, something bigger than just yourself. And if you want to be able to form Voltron, you don’t need to focus on bonding with your lion, you need to focus on bonding with each other.” Lee suggests, and the boys go quiet, contemplating over her words. 

Before they can try anything though, Allura suddenly pipes up, suggesting they need to be in danger, or fighting to be able to form Voltron, and the guys immediately jump on that idea as a possibility, finding it preferable to having to bond with each other. So, Allura starts up the castle’s defenses, setting them to attack the lions, who immediately start running.

Back in the control room, Lee quickly stalks over to Allura, waiting until she has closed the screen projecting her face into the lions, before confronting her.  
“Allura, seriously? Let fear be your guide? This is ridiculous, they will never be able to form Voltron this way, and you know that. It takes time, they need to bond.” Lee pleads, knowing that Allura knows better than this. Allura glances at her for a second, before quickly looking away.

“We do not have time to be wasting.” She replies, before setting the castle to automatically lock onto the lions, and walking away from the control system. Lee watches as Allura leaves the room, turning back to the controls after the door closes behind her.

“Why are you doing this Allura?” She murmurs, as she listens to the paladins crashing and burning, both at forming Voltron, and literally in some cases. She cannot take listening to it anymore, and so she leaves the control room, hoping Allura will see sense soon.

 

Lee is sitting on the couch between where Lance lays sprawled out, and Keith sits with his arms crossed, when Allura walks in with Coran beside her. She has her back to the door, but she can still practically see the happy, but smug smile she is sure Allura is sporting as she cheers that they formed Voltron. When Keith says that the defenses were turned off, and they just flew in, Lee has to work hard to stop herself from laughing at the face she is sure Allura is making.

“Did you shut them down?” She hears Allura ask in a cool voice, and Lee allows her head to tip back over the top of her seat, so she can see the two in the doorway. She meets Allura’s glare head on, with one of her own.

“No.” She drawls, before lifting her head back up, not bothering to look at Allura as she says the next part. “But I may as well have, since it was working so well.”

Coran fesses up to being the one that shut them down, but before Allura can even think about roasting them all again, Shiro walks in saying they aren’t taking a rest. Lee opts to listen silently as they continue to talk, until Coran speaks up about the last paladins. She straightens up, holding her breath as Coran gets closer and closer to the conclusion she’d already made. He suggest they work on the training deck, to become more of a team, and Lee can’t believe that of all the people here, Coran was the one who was starting to make sense.

_‘Well, almost’_ Lee thinks, as Coran decides that the way they need to bond is through a combat exercise. She couldn’t understand why no one seemed to get that they needed to bond the good old fashioned way, not through stress and danger and fighting. They needed to have fun together, to be friends before they could be effective teammates. Voltron required a bond of more than just teammates, it needed the closeness, and care that came from being friends with those you bonded with.

Lee sighs, as she watches the paladins trying the nosedive training exercise with their lions. All of them fail except Shiro. It is a great exercise for bonding with the lions, and she gets where Coran is coming from, but he has it backwards. He thinks they need a strong bond with their lions in order to bond with each other. But clearly, as seen by the way they antagonized each other into failing, or didn’t bother to try helping each other, they needed to bond with each other if they ever wanted to be able to work together at doing anything, even if it was just flying their individual lions near each other.

Lee actually does agree with the mediation type training exercise. The one where they all try to connect their minds in order to visualize forming Voltron. Connecting minds is always beneficial to forming a bond, or connection with another person, but she sees they are still having difficulties. Tired of sitting by and watching as they struggle, Lee moves down to enter the training room with them. 

“How about we try something a little bit different.” She says, as she walks up to the group. They all open their eyes, looking over to see her standing at the edge of their circle, with another headpiece in her hand. “Instead of trying to make your individual thoughts combine, let’s start by getting you all thinking, seeing, and feeling the same thing. I’d like to show you all something, if you’d let me?”

The paladins exchange glances, while Coran thankfully remains silent in the viewing room, as he is curious to see what Lee will do. 

“Um, sure, Lee, but what are you going to show us?” Shiro asks, and Lee smiles. She sits down, joining their circle, and crosses her legs. She raises the headpiece up, before placing it on her head.

“Well, I’ve seen your planet, but you have never seen mine. So, if it’s alright, I’d like to show you my home, what it was like before all of this.” Lee says, and the paladins close their eyes. Lee feels them all become connected, and so she delves into her memories, pulling out the ones she wants to show them. The paladins open their eyes as Lee begins speaking, gasping at the images that begin to form before their eyes.

“My people used to live in clans, generally they were small, made up of at most, a few families. My parents and I, were a part of the biggest one. By no means though did that mean that our clan was any less close than any others.” She says, and as she speaks, her memories illustrate what she says. When she mentions her parents, they see an image of a smiling couple, and then, they see others, the rest of her clan.

“Our clan lived in a village not far from the royal castle.” A village nestled into a valley at the base of some mountains appears, followed by a huge, glittering castle. “Frequently people of my clan would travel to the castle, to advise the king, and occasionally my parents would go, and take me along too. It was there that I met the princess.”

An image of a much smaller, much younger Allura appeared, and the paladins watched as she smiled, and giggled, twirling through a meadow of flowers.

“She was a few years older than me, but she was an only child, and lonely, in that great big castle. She welcomed my presence, and I gained one of the best friends I’d ever have.” Lee says, and they see the two girls running around, laughing, and hugging each other, all while smiling hugely. Then, suddenly, the door to the training room whooshes open, and Allura stalks in.

“And what, exactly, does this have to do with forming Voltron?” Allura demands, and unconsciously, other memories rise up, a few slipping out before Lee can stop them. 

A young Lee, only a few years old watches in awe from her mother’s arms as the 5 lions fly through the sky, forming Voltron before flying off to help save someone.

Lee, aged somewhere between 8 and 10, staring up at the 5 lions who sit in a circle around her, when suddenly one of them, the Red Lion, leans down towards her. Child Lee giggles, as the lion’s massive head rubs against her.

A Lee looking only a few years younger than she is now, is in the very training room they’re all in. She has her baton in her right hand, and is practicing moves with it. This awkward, fumbling girl who doesn’t know how to use her weapon is a far cry from the strong, confident fighter that took down the scientists with ease. Then, a black glove enters her field of vision, fixing her grip on the baton. They keep their hand in place, not allowing her to go back to the other way she was holding it. The mystery person guides her into flicking her wrist, and the whip shoots out. 

“Whoa.” A male voice says as memory Lee immediately begins swinging the whip around. 

The person must step back, their hand leaving the image, but as it does Keith is able to see a flash of red. The others don’t pick up on it, thinking it was just the whip, but Keith knows that wasn’t it. Before he can try getting another glimpse, the images disappear as Lee yanks the headpiece off.

“Lee, stop distracting them.” Allura demands, and Lee stands up, facing the other girl as they stand at opposite sides of the circle.

“I was just trying to help them, Allura. Clearly they’re becoming tired, and I figured they could use a nice break from their training.” Lee justifies, and Allura narrows her eyes. 

“You’re being too soft on them.” Allura accuses.

“And you are being too hard on them!” Lee counters, getting agitated. The paladins all stand up now, as the conflict starts to escalate. They all remove the headpieces, and wait cautiously to see where this fight may go.

“I have to be hard on them, since no one else here seems to realize just how much is at risk!” Allura cries, and Lee’s brows furrow as she looks at Allura, betrayal in her eyes.

“It wasn’t just your planet that was destroyed, Allura. You aren’t the only one who lost your home, who lost everything. But at least you still have something; you still have Coran. You have your father’s memories, his consciousness. You can still see him, talk to him, and spend time with him, whenever you want. I have nothing! My family, my clan, my people! My entire race was wiped out, and I’m the only one left!” Lee’s volume increases as she speaks, until she is screaming at Allura. Then, abruptly, she pauses, and when she resumes, her voice is quiet, and pained, and that is louder than anything else. “I’m alone. So I don’t think there’s anyone who understands just how much is at risk better than I do. All that I care about, the only people that I have left, in this entire universe, are right here in this castle. So if you think, that I would risk losing anyone here, by not taking this seriously, then-…”   
Breathing heavily, Lee turned her head, unable to finish speaking. She looks down, to the side, rapidly blinking trying to clear the tears that are gathering in her eyes. The others probably thought she had stopped because she had got too angry, but Keith, who was standing to her side, saw the tell-tale glisten in her eyes before she blinked it away.

“Leona…” Allura says softly, taking a step forward.

“Don’t, Allura.” Lee says, holding a hand up in the universal ‘stop’ motion. She raises her head, and any traces of the tears or sadness that had been there before were gone now, and instead there was just a blank face. “Not now.”

Lee moves, walking away from the group and towards the doors. The paladins watch in silence, unsure as to what to do now.

“But wait, what about training?” Allura calls out after Lee, who doesn’t stop walking, or even bother to turn around.

“Do whatever you want, Allura. After all, you’re the one who knows the most about Voltron.” Lee says, before the doors slide shut behind her, and she is gone. Everyone stands, in a state of shock, and Keith wonders if he is the only one who heard the bitter sarcasm to that last sentence.

The paladins are all sitting at the dining table, their hands shackled to each other. Allura sits at the head of the table, with Coran standing just beside her. Lee is not there, having yet to have made any sort of appearance since the confrontation with the princess. She had not shown up to their session with the Gladiator, and now, she wasn’t showing up at dinner. 

“Do Earthlings ever stop complaining?” Allura asks rhetorically, but this drives Keith’s frustration, and slow simmering anger to a boiling point.

“Can’t you just give us a break? It’s been a long day for everyone.” Shiro says, trying to prevent another conflict. Keith however, doesn’t bother.

“Yeah! We’re not some prisoners for you to toy with like, like-“

“Like a bunch of toy prisoners!” Lance chimes in.

“Yes, thank you, Lance.” Keith replies. “And besides, it seems like you’re pretty good at driving people from multiple races to the breaking point.” 

It is an underhanded, and ruthless dig at the princess, and everyone at the table knows it. Coran immediately jumps in, loyalty causing him to try and defend the princess. However, now the tipping point has been reached, and the frustration, resentment, and anger of the past few days boils over. 

A food fight erupts, and as things are calming down, the door whooshes open. Lee walks in, before stopping abruptly. The paladins are chained together and lying on the floor, most of the chairs are knocked over, and everyone is covered in green food goo. She raises an eyebrow. 

Before she can get an explanation, the paladins, now freed, are racing out of the room. As they exit the room, Keith slows down as he passes Lee, letting the others get ahead. She answers his questioning look with a small smile, and a nod, and he speeds up, following the others out of the room. Coran and Allura are next to race out, Coran first, as Allura stops to grab Lee’s hand and drag her with them outside.

As they watch, the paladins are able to successfully form Voltron, and as they fly around and celebrate, Allura turns to Lee.

“I’m sorry, for what I said, it was selfish of me. I wasn’t thinking.” Allura apologizes, and Lee turns to her with small smile.

“It’s alright. It’s been a tough, and stressful couple days, and everyone has been on edge.” Lee accepts Allura’s apology, excusing her behaviour. 

“I’m also sorry though, because I should’ve listened to you. They needed to bond, to have fun, and become friends. You were right all along, and in the future I will strive to always listen to your opinion.” Allura says solemnly, and Lee decides that that’s enough of the serious mood.

“Well good, because we have clearly established by now that I am always right, and so you should listen to me, always, and about everything.” Lee says, and the two girls laugh, as Voltron lands in front of them.

The paladins are sprawled out over the couches, coming down from their high over being able to form Voltron. As they all separate to go to their rooms, Keith catches up with Lee, walking together since their rooms are near each other. He stops her before she can enter her room though.

“Hey, so… are you alright now?” Keith asks awkwardly, and Lee smiles at him.

“Yeah, I’m fine. Allura and I talked and we’re good.” She tells him, and he nods absentmindedly.

“That’s good.” He says, and the two stand there silently, before Lee turns to go into her room. Keith reaches out though, grabbing her elbow. “Wait, just-…you’re not alone, okay? Because no matter what, you’re got me-us! You’ve got us.”

Lee blinks in shock, as Keith swiftly turns, walking away to his room without looking back. She turns, entering her own room, and wanders over to her bed. She flops onto it, allowing his words to run through her head. She feels a blush come over her cheeks, and a fluttering in her stomach, before she rolls over, flicking the light off, and going to bed. 

As she falls asleep, a soothing mantra plays through her mind,  
 _'You’re not alone…you’ve got me...you’ve got us’._


	4. Episode 3

As Shiro exits the dining room, he passes Lee who is just on her way in. They exchange greetings, and continue on to their destinations. Lee walks up to the table, the content look on her face being quickly replaced with disgust, as her nose wrinkles, and her eyebrows furrow. She looks around, wondering what could have died, before sighting the ‘food’ on the table.

“Ugh, seriously Coran? This was terrible back then, and I’m sure it’s even worse now. It certainly smells worse than I remember.” Lee says, but Coran ignores her, instead trying to see if he can coax Lance into trying some of it. Keith however, looks at her curiously, wondering how she would know how an ancient paladin dish would smell, and taste.

Lee carefully sidestepped where Coran was gesturing with his spoon, and Lance was looking on in a sort of horrified fascination as the food almost seemed to move by itself. She walked over to where Keith was sitting, plopping down into a seat beside him.

“Hey, so I heard training went well?” She asked, smiling, and Keith gave her a small one in return.

“Yeah, we seem to be getting the hang of it slowly.” He says, but then his smile drops, and a tiny furrow forms between his eyebrows. “I, uh, noticed that you weren’t there watching. What were you doing?”

“Oh, well, I was doing a bit of training myself.” Lee answers casually, but Keith can see the underlying nervousness she is trying to hide. Before he can try and find out more, they are interrupted by Hunk appearing with some delicious looking food. Lance and Keith immediately dig in, and Lee is glad she had eaten earlier, as she is afraid she might lose a finger if she were to try and get any food now. 

Suddenly, an alarm goes off, and everyone stands as Allura pulls up a screen showing someone approaching the front entrance of the castle. Lance and Hunk both find the creature cute, but Keith is suspicious, drawing his bayard, but not releasing his sword. Allura wants to welcome it, so the group exits the room to meet the creature. Keith is slow to follow, and before he leaves to follow the others Lee reaches out, touching his bicep to gain his attention. 

“Stay alert; be prepared for action, but never make the first move towards it. There’s no sense in making enemies when there are none.” Lee advises, and then they follow the others outside the castle.

Allura greets the creature, who jumps out brandishing a crude sword. Lee can feel Keith tense beside her, and reaches out, grabbing his hand where it hangs by his side clenching tightly to his bayard handle. He remains tense, but doesn’t move forward to intercept the creature, staying quiet and allowing Allura to speak for them.

The warrior speaks of a lion goddess, and giant in the sky, and Lee realizes that they had mistaken Voltron and the attacks, and training, as a sign that their goddess was angry with them. Allura seems to realize the same thing, and seeks to reassure the warrior, by telling him that it is her castle. The warrior drops to his knees, bowing to Allura. When he calls her lion goddess though, Lee can’t hold back a snort of amusement, quickly silenced by a sharp look from Allura.

“Please, bravest warrior, take us to your village, so that we may meet our neighbours.” Allura says, serene smile back on her face as she looks at the small creature before them.  
“What about our mission to get off this planet and fight Zarkon?” Keith asks, not wanting them to be diverted from their goal.

“Part of the Paladins’ mission is to spread peace and diplomacy. Arus has been our host for 10 000 years. These people deserve our thanks.” Allura says, and sullenly Keith follows the rest of them to the village, not able to say anything in reply to that.

Keith walks with his arms crossed at the back of the group heading to the village. Lee is ahead of him, this time staying close with the group, and Keith finds that this makes him more annoyed. He reaches forward, grasping Lee by the shoulder and pulling her back beside him.

“Don’t you think this is a waste of time?” He asks Lee, as the two now trail behind the rest of the group. 

“Not at all. Though I’m not surprised to find that you prefer fighting to talking.” Lee says, smirk tilting the corners of her lips. Normally, Keith would feel the need to defend himself at a statement like that, but he can see that Lee is teasing, and that she doesn’t view it as a weakness, or judge him for it. “But, unfortunately, just as important as actually fighting, and protecting as Voltron, is being able to deal with politics, and negotiations, and peace treaties. It’s not all bad though, learning about new cultures is interesting, and there is always something fun or exciting to discover.”

Keith still doesn’t think this is a good use of their time, but he is a man of action and not words, so seeing Lee’s excitement, and understanding what she is saying, he resolves to hold his tongue, and wait to see what happens.

 

Down in the Arusian village, Lee looks around in wonder, smile wide on her face as she watches the people run around, and studies their village. Keith stands a little ways away from the group, arms crossed, warily keeping an eye out. However, he gets distracted when he sees Lee and the enchanted look on her face, only snapped out of his staring at her by the king of the Arusians clapping his hands. He can feel heat begin creeping up his cheeks, and darts a glance over at Lee while the king is talking. She seems completely focused on what he is saying, and Keith sighs a breath of relief, as seemingly she hadn’t caught onto his staring. 

Then, an Arusian girl begins doing some strange dance, and Keith is left wondering what he missed. When Allura protests the dance, one of the Arusians lights a fire, and the king announces that they must throw themselves into the sacrificial fire.

“Allura.” Lee hisses, her eyes wide as she turns to the princess. Allura’s own eyes widen, and she hurries to correct her mistake.

“No sacrifices!” She cries.

“So, we may proceed with the dance?” The king asks, smile on his face.

“That’s a better alternative.” Allura replies, and with a clap from the king, the girl begins dancing again. Once the dance has ended, all the Arusians drop to their knees.

“Oh my. Please, please rise. Thank you for that, but I am not a great being worthy of your worship.” Allura begins, and Lee turns to Keith.

“No kidding.” She whispers, and the two have to fight to stifle any laughter. They tune back into her speech as she introduces herself, Lee, and the paladins. They listen as Allura then tries to explain what Voltron is, before making a promise that Voltron would protect every innocent being in the universe. 

Lee’s eyebrows furrow, and she feels anxious. Such a promise will be extremely difficult to uphold, and it will place a huge amount of pressure on the paladins, and all of them. Her worried thoughts are interrupted, however, by a young Arusian coming up to her. It looks to be a young boy, and he holds out a flower to her. Lee smiles, reaching out to take the flower, only for the boy to shake his head, and gesture her closer. Slightly puzzled, Lee leans down, and the boy reaches out to tuck the flower behind her ear. 

“Thank you.” Lee says, smiling brightly. She leans forward, placing a kiss on the boy’s cheek, and she sees colour rise in his cheeks before he turns, running over to a group of boys around his age. Lee chuckles as she sees him and his friends jumping around, and chattering excitedly. Her attention is drawn away as she feels a tug to her shirt. Looking down, she sees another Arusian child, this one a female, and younger than the boy. The girl reaches up a hand to Lee, who accepts it, allowing the girl to lead her away. Lee is lead to where there is music playing, and several other little girls dance around.

Her hand is dropped at the edge of the circle, and the little girl moves to join the others in dancing. Lee remains on the outside of their little dance floor, watching as the little girls giggle, twirling around. She is content to watch, unsure as to what they expect from her, but then the same little girl from before breaks from the group, and comes over to her again. She grabs Lee’s hand, dragging her forward two steps, before releasing her again, and moving towards the dancing girls. She pauses, not joining them yet as she stares at Lee expectantly.

Suddenly, Lee clues into what the girl wants, and she turns around. She can hear the girl make a disappointed sound behind her, as Lee moves to the edge of the dance floor. Lee pauses at the edge of the dance floor, before slipping out of her shoes, and taking her long sleeve shirt off, revealing a white undershirt. The tank top shows off her arms and shoulders, which are nicely defined from all the training she did. Apparently, 10 000 years of sleep did nothing to her fitness from before. She lays her shirt beside her shoes on the ground. Barefoot, she turns back to the dancers, only to see the little girl giving her puppy dog eyes.

Lee grins, and she makes her way towards the little girl, who immediately brightens up. Lee is pulled to the center of the group, the girls forming a circle around her. They stare at her waiting, and Lee turns to the drummers, motioning for them to continue playing. They do so, and Lee immediately throws herself into dancing, twirling around, and waving her arms. The girls let out a cheer, before joining in, giggling wildly.

 

Keith, who had just managed to rid himself of the Arusian who had latched onto him, was walking quickly, trying to find where Lee had gone. She had disappeared at some point, and he didn’t know where she was. Even though he didn’t think the Arusians were any threat to her, he still felt the need to find her, to see for himself that she was fine. His attention is drawn by the sound of little girls laughing, and so he follows it. He pauses a fair distance away, when suddenly he sees Lee spinning around wildly. He tenses, ready to leap to her aid, when he notices that she is smiling widely. 

He suddenly realizes that he can hear music, and sees that Lee is dancing with the little girls, laughing exuberantly as the children giggle. Keith watches, eyes wide, as Lee dances. As he looks closer, he sees that she had kicked off her shoes, dancing in bare feet, and had removed her outer shirt. Keith can see her lion head pendant bumping against her chest as she twirls, and even from where he stands he can see the sparkle in her eyes. Keith can only stare, transfixed, and he knows he would never hear the end of it if any of the guys found him like this, but he can’t seem to stop. 

He is abruptly broken from his staring as he hears Shiro’s voice come over the coms. Immediately on alert, he moves towards Lee. He enters the circle, the girls quieting, and stopping dancing as they move to the side. 

“Lee.” Keith calls, stopping a few feet away from the dancing girl. She stops, spinning around to face him, smiling brightly. At seeing the serious look on his face, however, her smile drops, and she looks at him questioningly. “We have to go, now.”

They move to where Lee has left her things, and as she hops around trying to get her shoes back on, Lee grasps hold of Keith’s shoulder to balance herself. Once she has her shoes on, she hesitates, holding onto his shoulder a second too long, squeezing lightly before releasing him. The two race back towards the others, Lee having pulled her shirt on as they ran. They meet up with the others, and that is when they all see something falling from the sky towards them, flames streaking out behind it.

“We have to get to our lions.” Keith says, sparing one last glance towards Lee, before racing off with the other paladins. 

 

Keith, Lance and Hunk all take off to join Pidge and Shiro against the giant monster that had fallen from the sky. Allura, Coran, and Lee were left in the Arusian village, and immediately they were trying to calm the people down, and try to figure out how to protect them.

“Lee, is there anything you can-…?” Allura begins to ask, turning to face Lee.

“Yeah, but not for the whole village, it’s too big an area. They need to all be gathered somewhere, close together.” Lee replies, and Allura spots a cave, pointing it out. Lee looks at it, before turning back to Allura and nodding. Immediately they all start trying to direct the panicked Arusians to the cave. Allura goes first, leading them, while Coran takes up the rear, guiding the large mass of Arusians to the cave between them. Lee hangs back, checking everywhere, in every house, and hiding spot, and sending any stragglers to follow the group up to the cave. As she is checking that the village is empty, she glances up, and sees Voltron being formed.

Lee listens intently to the battle, being able to hear the impacts, and hits from where she is, and also listening to the guys through the com she has in her ear. She hadn’t heard Shiro’s warning earlier, as she had been too distracted by the loud music, but now she kept half her attention on the voices coming through, and the other half concentrated on her task. She can hear as the paladins sound worried, and begins to worry herself. They still haven’t had much time to train together as Voltron, and even though it was the most powerful weapon in the universe, they needed to know how to use it to win. She was so focused on the battle, she almost didn’t hear the quiet sound coming from the center of the village. 

She does though, and she moves closer, identifying it as the sound of someone crying. She follows the sound, discovering the little girl from before hiding. The girl latches onto her, and so Lee swiftly lifts her into her arms. She makes one last sweep of the village, before determining it’s empty. She is just about to move towards the cave when an almighty crash sounds, and she turns, the little girl’s face tucking in to her neck, and spots Voltron collapsed over the mountains surrounding the village. Lee begins running, as she sees Voltron be hit by a dark purple energy ball, and start falling towards the village. Voltron’s thrusters kick in, and it rises back above the village.

“That was close.” Shiro says, relieved.

“Yeah, a little too close. I think you may have singed my braid.” They hear Lee’s voice come through.

“Lee?!” She hear multiple voices yell.

“Are you still in the village?” Shiro demands, and Lee once again begins running towards the cave. 

“Get out of there, now!” Keith yells, before she even has time to answer.

“I’m leaving now, I was just making sure it was empty. We’ve moved all the villagers to a cave, on the far end of the village, away from your fight. They’ll be safe there.” Lee says. She reaches the cave, handing the girl over to a distraught looking Arusian, which must be her mother. 

“Alright Lee, are you ready?” Allura asks, and she smiles nodding. She takes a deep breath, raising her arms, her eyes drifting close, but they snap open a second later as she hears a deafening smash, and through the coms she can hear the paladins yelling.

“Wait, Allura. Voltron, the paladins- they need help!” She exclaims.

“Yes, but we can’t offer them any from here, and the castle is too far away.” Allura says, grim expression on her face.

“We can’t just do nothing!” Lee cries, but Allura doesn’t budge. Determination races across Lee’s face. “I have to do something Allura, I can’t just sit here!”  
Lee turns, exiting the cave. Before Allura can make a move to follow her, Lee is waving her hands, and a shimmering barrier rises from the floor, completely sealing the opening to the cave. When it reaches the top, it glimmers brightly for a second, before becoming translucent. Allura races to the cave opening, but is stopped from exiting by the barrier.

“Lee!” She yells, her hands flat on the barrier as she stares at the girl.

“Don’t worry Allura, the barrier will protect you; you’ll all be safe.” Lee promises, and then turns, racing away from the cave, and towards the battle. She touches her necklace, hopping on her disk and racing away. 

“Lee, please come back! Lee! What about your safety? Lee!” Allura cries, but the girl disappears from view. Allura feels a hand on her shoulder, and turns to see Coran giving her a grim look. She looks past him, to see all the Arusians staring at her, and looking afraid. Allura gathers herself, using Coran to shield herself from view, until she steps out from beside him, strong façade up.

 

Lee crests one of the mountains, swiftly flying down to the ground. She is behind the monster, and so she ducks behind a boulder, to figure out what to do next. As she watches, Voltron takes a hard hit, being knocked to the ground. Lee realizes that she has to act now, and so she runs out from behind the boulder, and out onto the battlefield. Her mind is racing, trying to figure out what she can do, when she remembers something she had been training to do 10 000 years before. She had never managed to do it then, but as she watched, the monster’s purple orb hit them just as they stood up, and Voltron fell back against the mountain. Lee could hear Keith calling for Shiro, and she could see the monster preparing to hit them again. She closed her eyes, raising her arms out in front of her, and taking a deep breath.

Lee’s concentration was absolute, as she focused her energy. Then, an image, the head of a lion in shimmering white, formed in front of Lee, hovering in the air. It was an almost direct copy of the lion head on her pendant. Lee opened her eyes, and as she clenched her hands, a beam of pure white light raced out through the lion’s mouth.   
The white beam slammed into the monster, and knocked it to one knee. Lee could hear the paladins gasping, looking for where the blast had come from. 

“What is that?” Pidge squawked, and the others looked to see a floating lion head in the distance.

“Is that, like, a ghost, or a spirit or something?” Hunk asks, and they are all silent, trying to figure it out. The monster had turned away from them, looking at the mysterious head, and so they focused on raising themselves up.

“I don’t know, but it sure looks familiar.” Lance says, and Keith is about to say something snarky in response to that, probably questioning why Lance thinks a strange glowing white lion head that appeared out of nowhere and blasted the monster was familiar, when he looks at it closer. He realizes that it does look familiar, and wracks his brain trying to figure it out.

“We can try and figure it out later guys, for now let’s just focus on beating this thing.” Shiro says, and they all refocus on the monster. It is drawing its orb back to its hand, turning to face them once again, but before it can throw it at them, another blast strikes it from behind, sending it stumbling forward a few steps.

“That sound. I recognize this monster from my time in Zarkon’s prison. I know how to beat it.” Shiro says, and the paladins prepare to attack once again. The monster has got up, and it charges toward them. Just as it reels back to hit them, they jump out of the way, and end up on the other side of the battlefield. Shiro explains what he knows of the monster, setting up a plan, and Voltron uses the shield to block the next hit, getting pushed back.

They end up just a bit away from where the lion head floats, and as they look over, they come to a startling realization.

“There’s a person there!” Pidge shouts, and the paladins can just see a figure behind the lion head. As Keith looks, it clicks into place for him, why the lion head seemed familiar, and who the mystery person was.

“It’s Lee!” Keith shouts, feeling his heart stop briefly. 

“Lee?” The other paladins echo him in shock. They are all frozen, dumb founded.

“Look out!” They hear Lee cry, and get the shield up just in time to block the next orb. The third one comes in quick succession, not leaving them a second to question Lee any more. 

Lee lets out a breath of air harshly. This was not how she wanted them all to find out, especially not since they were in the middle of a battle, and couldn’t do with any distraction. After the third hit from the orb, Voltron’s shield breaks, and she hears Shiro yell out to fire now, sending out another blast of energy along with Voltron’s laser beam. The monster is knocked down, but Lee tenses; it doesn’t feel like it’s over. The monster gets back up again, and hits Voltron twice more, crushing it into a crater. 

Lee gasps, hearing them say that they can’t take any more hits. The monster is preparing a third shot, so she sends out a quick fire of hits, one after the other, distracting the monster from Voltron. Its third shot goes wide, not hitting anything, and so it calls the orb to it to recharge. She keeps up the shots, knowing Voltron is coming up with something when she hears Keith talk about his lion. The monster turns, beginning to run at her. Lee is concentrated on making sure her hits land, but she is distracted for one second by Voltron forming a huge sword. That one second is enough, as the monster leaps for her, arm extending to throw the orb. 

Voltron intercepts, slashing at the monster with the sword. Dust swirls up as they land, and the monster falls to the ground in a heap, electricity crackling, until it explodes. The paladins are cheering, until they hear a scream. Turning, they see that the monster had managed to launch the orb before they slashed it, and the orb is hurtling directly for Lee. They begin racing towards her, Voltron’s huge lumbering steps closing the distance between them quickly, but they can all see that it won’t be quick enough. As the orb gets closer and closer, the lion head grows, shining brighter, until the orb impacts, and a flash of bright white erupts, blinding them for a second. 

When they can see again, there is a huge crater where Lee had been standing. Voltron disassembles, the paladins all landing in their individual lions. Keith’s is the first to touch down, and he is out of the lion and racing towards where he sees a body on the sand before the others have even fully landed their lions. 

“Hello, paladins, are you alright? What’s going on? Lee put up a barrier to protect us from the fight, but I couldn’t get any com transmissions from inside. What’s happened?” Allura asks rapid questions. The paladins hesitate, unsure of how to respond, before Shiro steps up as leader to relay what’s happened.

“Lee showed up, and was helping us fight the monster somehow. We were able to destroy it, but before we did, it managed to send out one last blast, which hit her.” Shiro keeps it quick and simple, as he and the rest of the paladins exit their lions. He hears a gasp on the other end.

“Is she alright?” Allura asks, voice smaller than before. The paladins run over to Keith, who is completely silent. They find him cradling Lee’s unconscious body.

“She needs medical attention.” Keith says, voice gruff, as he stands up, gently lifting Lee into his arms. He begins walking towards his lion without another word, and the remaining paladins look at each other.

“Allura, meet us at the castle as soon as you can.” Shiro instructs, and the paladins return to their own lions, following behind Keith, who speeds off.  
Inside his lion, Keith is holding Lee on his lap, too distracted by her to notice that his lion is doing most of the flying itself. He doesn’t say anything, knowing he is still hooked into the coms, but he makes a silent plea for her to be okay.

 

The group stand around the room, a tense, heavy silence upon them. Allura and Coran had arrived quickly, and they led the way, Keith behind with Lee in his arms, and the other paladins in the rear. They put Lee in one of the cryo-pods to heal, and it is with reluctance that Keith lets her go, setting her in the pod. However, before he backs away and allows it to close, his attention is caught by something. He reaches out, grabbing onto something before drawing his hand out, pod closing. He opens his palm, and recognizes the flower that had been in Lee’s hair. It is singed, and crumpled, but he tucks it into his pocket for safe keeping anyway. 

“So, what was that out there, that Lee was doing?” Hunk asks, but a cold glare from Keith has him freezing.

“Really, Hunk? Lee is in a cryo-pod, where she has to stay for hours to heal after we couldn’t protect her, and all you care about is **how** she was risking her life to help us?” Keith speaks harshly, and Hunk flinches, ducking his head down.

“So, not the time. Right, right, sorry. I’m just really confused, and sort of freaked out.” He says, and before an argument breaks out, Allura cuts in.

“That is for Lee to tell you herself, when she is ready. As for now, it will be a few hours before she is awake again, and then she will need to rest. Your questions will have to wait for another day.” She says, before exiting the room. Needing some advice, and comfort, she heads up to her father’s room. Coran slips out after, with Hunk, Lance and Pidge following.   
That leaves Shiro and Keith in the room. Shiro step forward, putting a hand on Keith’s shoulder.

“Hey, she’ll be alright.” Shiro says, but with no response from Keith he smiles sadly, squeezing the younger’s shoulder before he turns, knowing that right now there is nothing he can say or do to reassure him; that only Lee awake again and fine will do that. Instead, Shiro heads out to find Pidge, knowing that at least there is something he can say to help that teammate.

Once Keith is finally alone, he walks up to the cryo-pod, looking in at Lee’s face through the small window.

“I’m so sorry.” He says, voice breaking, and he coughs, clearing his throat, and looking away. He turns, sliding down to sit against the base of the pod, and leaning against it. The slight hum of the machine is reassuring, letting him know that it is working to help Lee, to heal her. Pulling out the flower, he cradles it in one hand, and the other gently strokes its damaged petals. He wonders briefly if he had left the flower in the pod, if it would have been fixed, but then decides that he doesn’t care. And besides, he wouldn’t want the machine wasting even a second fixing a flower when it could be fixing Lee.

 

It is hours later, that Keith is jolted awake by the sound of the pod opening. He scrambles upwards, and the pod reveals Lee, who is blinking sleepily. She looks disoriented, and when she moves to take a step out, her legs tremble beneath her. Before she can fall, Keith moves forward, wrapping an arm around her waist to support her. Allura had warned him of these side effects from the healing when she had come in to check on Lee, an hour or two ago. Slowly, Lee’s eyes flutter open completely, becoming more aware. 

“Keith?” She questions, and he smiles at her, a small, but emotional smile. Lee’s eyebrows furrow, and she wants to try and examine it more, but she is so tired, and all her energy is going to just keeping her awake. “I’m tired.”

Allura had said to expect this too. Although technically Lee had just been asleep for hours, the healing would take a lot out of her, and wasn’t like a true sleep anyway. Keith could see her blinks taking longer and longer, and feel more and more of her weight resting on him.

“Alright, come on then.” He says, sweeping her up into his arms. Lee is too tired to protest, and besides, Keith is warm, and he smells nice. She buries her face into his chest, and she can hear his heartbeat fast in her ear. Before she knows it, she is being placed in her bed, and the covers are pulled over her. She drifts further and further from the realm of wakefulness, but just before she is pulled completely into sleep, she feels a warm, soft sensation on her forehead, before hearing Keith whisper goodnight, and her door close.

When Lee wakes up in the morning, she recalls what happened the night before. She thinks that what she remembered from right before falling asleep was actually just a dream, not believing it had actually happened. But then, she rolls over, and on the table beside her bed, she sees a scorched, and crumpled flower.


	5. Episode 4

“Stupid Allura, and her stupid party, and stupid obsession with dressing people up like dolls.” Lee grumbled to herself. She turned, looking into the mirror, and sighed. She looked pretty good, the dress Allura had picked out flattered her well. It was a gold colour, loose and flowing, but it clung enough that her figure was defined. The dress ended at her knees, and Allura had provided her with a matching pair of golden sandals. She had her lion pendant on, as always, but her usual braid was missing. When Allura was trying to convince her to dress up for the party, she had begged Lee to do something else with her hair. 

Lee reached out, and picked up the hair clip Allura had brought along with the dress and shoes. She was willing to admit that a large part of the reason she agreed to dress up at all, was because of the clip. It was a beautiful piece, red jeweled flowers adorning it, with a golden base, and outline. And while she had to return the dress and shoes, Allura had said she could keep the hair piece. She styled her hair into a simple, but stylish up-do, sliding it into place. 

Rolling her eyes at herself in the mirror, Lee grinned, before turning to make her way down to the gathering. She still thought getting dressed up like this was a bit much for a simple goodbye party with the Arusians, but Allura had seemed so excited when she had turned up with the clothes, so Lee figured she could humour her for one night.

Things had been a bit tense since she had woken up after the fight with the monster, and her brief stay in the cryo-tube. She knew the paladins were desperate to know more about her, and how she could do what she did. So far, they had held off on the questioning, as she was still recovering, but she knew she would have to tell them soon. 

Deciding she could worry about that when it happened, Lee resolved to enjoy the party while she was here. She walked down the stairs, joining Allura on the landing overlooking the room. 

“Oh, Lee, you look incredible.” Allura said, coming up to give her a hug. 

“And you look as good as always Allura. Which reminds me, why did I have to dress up when you’re wearing the same thing you usually do?” Lee asked, returning the hug before stepping back, and raining an eyebrow. 

“Don’t pretend like you aren’t enjoying being dressed like this.” Allura teased, and Lee laughed, caught out. She leaned against the rail and observed the room. The Arusians were spread out all over, and she could see Keith and Hunk leaning over Lance, who was on the floor. Coran and Shiro were standing at the edge of the room, towards the entry hall. She saw Keith turn from where he had still been standing near Lance, and excused herself to go and talk to him. 

Allura smiled, having to try very hard not to make any strange noises, or squeals. Keith was staring at Lee, star-struck, as she descended the stairs, and walked towards him. Lee had a huge grin on her face, and she moved through the crowd in a beeline straight for Keith. Allura watched from the balcony and couldn’t believe how oblivious each was. 

 

“Hey Keith.” Lee greeted, smiling warmly. Keith shook himself from his stupor, struggling to find words to respond to her.

“Hey Lee. You – um… you look really nice.” Keith stuttered slightly, and she blushed, stomach swooping briefly. 

“Thanks. Allura let me borrow it. Or, really, she made me borrow it. She wanted me to dress up, since this is a party.” Lee explained, a bit flustered herself. A small frown crossed Keith’s face.

“She shouldn’t have made you dress up if you didn’t want to. I think what you wear is fine. We wear our Voltron suits almost all the time, and yours is similar, so it would make   
sense to wear it a lot.” Keith says, and Lee hurries to correct him.

“She didn’t really force me to. I mean, I didn’t really see the point in dressing up, but if I really hadn’t wanted to, she wouldn’t have made me. And besides, what could happen where my armour would be necessary, at a little party like this?” Lee asks, grinning, and Keith seems appeased. 

“Well, you never know.” He says, and Lee chuckles. They are interrupted as the Team is gathered. All of them but Lance and Coran have moved to a separate room, as there is apparently something that Pidge needs to tell them.

 

“Pidge, no.” Shiro says, and Lee is just in shock that one of the paladins would even consider leaving the team, and Voltron.

“The download from the Galra ship was enough to at least get me in the right direction to start my search. I have a pod all ready to go.” Pidge says. Keith steps forward, angry, and Lee stands still, frozen.

“You can’t leave.” Keith says, walking up beside Pidge.

“You can’t tell me what to do.” Pidge replies, and the two face each other, anger on both their faces.

“If you leave, we can’t form Voltron. And that means we can’t defend the universe against Zarkon. You’re not the only one with a family. All these Arusians have families, everyone in the universe has families.” As Keith talks, Pidge’s head drops down. What Keith says is perhaps harsh, but Lee believes that it is justified in this situation.

“Yeah, I have a family. They live on Earth. I want to be with them, is that- is that like a thing that can happen?” Hunk asks, and Allura enters the conversation. 

“You want to leave too?” She asks.

“Of course I do. Look Voltron is super cool, don’t get me wrong, but I never signed up for a lifetime in space, fighting aliens.” Hunk explains, and Lee can see Keith’s anger growing. Finally snapping out of her shock, she decides she has to jump in.

“But that’s the point, isn’t it? You didn’t volunteer for this, you were chosen. Pidge, you were chosen to be a part of Voltron, chosen to pilot the green lion.” Lee says, calmly entering the conversation. Keith’s anger seems to retreat a little bit at the interruption; he no longer seems to be a second from blowing up. Pidge looks over at Lee, who has an earnest look on her face.

“Well can’t someone else be chosen? Why can’t you do it?” Pidge asks Lee, who looks startled at the question. She shakes her head before she even opens her mouth to respond.

“I can’t Pidge. The green lion didn’t choose me. It’s not my destiny. The green lion chose you.” Lee says solemnly, and Pidge hesitates a second, Lee filling with hope that maybe this will have get through to the stubborn earthling. Then, a scowl forms on Pidge’s face, and Lee’s heart sinks.

“Yeah, well you apparently had some secret weird magic powers that you never told us about, so how can we trust anything you say? Maybe, you’re already bonded with the green lion, and just didn’t bother to tell us. Who knows, maybe you’re even working with Zarkon!” Pidge cries, and Lee can’t stop the gasp from escaping her at the accusations. She can hear gasps from the others as well, and Shiro steps forward, placing a hand on Pidge’s shoulder.

“Pidge…” He trails off, but before he can say anymore, Lee’s anger overflows. 

“How dare you! I have trusted you completely, ever since the green lion chose you, because I knew that it would choose a good person. Someone worthy of it. But you haven’t been able to reciprocate even the slightest shred of the respect or trust that I have shown you! Zarkon destroyed my planet! My entre solar system, everything I ever knew! Everything except Allura, and Coran; the castle, the lions, and Voltron!” Lee takes a deep breath, her rage dwindling, the anger still there, but being now joined by despair, and sadness. “That is all that I have. That’s **my** family. And that you would question my loyalties to them, when you are willing to give up the entire universe for yours…” 

Pidge’s anger seems to melt away, and Lee can see some regret starting to sink in. However, this is not something that Lee can simply forgive, or forget. Pidge’s accusations, whether made in anger or not, meant seriously or not, hurt her deeply. Lee turns, as she can’t bear to stand around anymore and listen as the universe’s last hope crumbles around them. She is upset, and she just needs to get away, and maybe go hit something. 

“Lee, where are you going?” Allura asks, as the girl begins to walk away from them. She pauses, head turning to the side.

“I’m going to change out of this dress, and then I’m going to go train. Because without Voltron, it’s going to be a struggle to survive, let alone save the universe.” Lee says, her voice   
raw. Pidge flinches, but Lee does not see, as she has already turned back, exiting the room.

 

Up in her room, Lee lets the door close behind her, slumping against it. She draws in a ragged breath, fighting down the stinging in her eyes. She is feeling lost, and her mind feels chaotic with all the whirling emotions. With one last deep breath, she gathers herself, and pushes off the door. As she changes back into her regular outfit, she decides she’ll have to find time to meditate soon as well. As she pulls out the hair clip, she gazes at it for a moment, smiling softly before tucking it away in a safe place, beside the burnt and crumpled flower from before. She turns away, quickly braiding her hair once again, before exiting her room. 

She is barely a few steps from her door when an explosion rocks the castle. Lee immediately turns and races down to the main room where she had last seen everyone else. She gets there just in time to see the others race off towards the explosion, and follows after them swiftly. She can see them help someone off of the floor, and is finally able to catch up as they are all crowded around a doorway. Lee hears Allura mention the crystal, before calling Lance’s name.

“We have to get Lance to the infirmary.” Pidge says, and Lee can feel some residual resentment, but pushes it down in lieu of focusing on the situation. 

“Without the crystal, the castle has no power.” Allura says. She turns to face Lee, who is hovering at the back of the group. With a moment of hesitation, Lee nods.

“He doesn’t look good.” Shiro says, and Lee steps forward, moving past the rest of them without a second glance. 

“Let me see him.” She says, moving around Shiro to Lance’s other side. She reaches a hand out, but Shiro’s arms clench around Lance briefly. Lee looks up, meeting Shiro’s gaze. She makes sure he can see the sincerity and concern in her eyes. “Shiro, please. I just want to help him.”

He deliberates a second, before giving her a nod, and relaxing slightly. Lee directs him to gently lay Lance out on the ground, before hovering her hand over his forehead. She closes her eyes, and a soft white glow comes over her hand, which she then lowers, palm down, to touch Lance’s forehead. She sucks in a deep, slow breath through her nose. After a long moment, her eyes open, and she lifts her hand, glow fading. 

“Okay, I was able to stabilize him, but I’m still pretty drained from before, so that’s all I could do.” Here she pauses, hesitating before saying the rest. She is prompted to continue, which she does, reluctantly. “He still **needs** to go into a cryo-tube.”

Lee exchanges a grim look with Allura, both realizing the difficult predicament they’ve got now. The crystal is broken, meaning they don’t have any power for the cryo-tubes, but Lance needs one, and getting another crystal is not an easy task. Lee straightens abruptly, hearing someone approaching rapidly. The Arusian king appears in the room.

“Lion warriors! Our village is under attack! We need help!” He cries, running as fast as he can, sweat dripping. 

“We need the lions.” Keith says, and Lee moves closer to him, standing in front of where Shiro crouches with Lance in his arms still.

“You can’t. They’re sealed in their hangers. There’s no way to get them out. We’re defenseless.” Allura says, and Lee straightens her spine. She would’ve felt offended, or teased Allura for her apparent lack of confidence in her skills, but this is too dire a situation to be making light of it.

“Will you not help us?” The king asks, eyes darting around to them all.

“We’ll help you, we just…” Keith trails off, as Lance groans.

“This is bad.” Hunk says, and they all agree in their heads.

“We have to get a new crystal to get the castle working again. But to get a new crystal, we’ll need a ship.” Coran says, standing up on his own. He is clearly still feeling the effects of the explosion, but he knows, as they all do, that now is not the time for weakness.

“The pod I was loading! We can use that! I left the bay door open.” Pidge says, and Lee feels a little of her anger ebb away at the eager offer of the ship Pidge was going to take, to help them all.

“I can use the scanner on the pod to see if there’s a balmera nearby. Hunk, you come with me, I’ll need someone big to help me carry the crystal.” Coran says, and Hunk gives a strange look.

“A balmera?” He questions, and Lee starts to feel frustrated, as they don’t have time for questions now.

“It’s where the crystals come from. I’ll tell you about it on the way.” Coran says, turning to head for the pod. Hunk and Pidge move to follow, and Lee is relieved that at least Coran understands the time sensitivity of their mission.

“I’ll go see what’s happening at the Arusian village.” Keith states.

“I’ll go with you Keith. I brought this on the poor Arusians.” Allura says, and Lee quickly steps forward.

“I’m coming too. If the village is being attacked, you’re going to need help, and I’ve never needed a giant robot to fight.” Lee says, and Allura considered asking her to stay behind at the castle, but at seeing the determined look on Lee’s face, decided it’s better to just drop it. Instead, she nods, and Lee gives her a small, tight smile in thanks at her support.

“I’ll tend to Lance, and keep watch over the castle.” Shiro says, and the three of them run out, racing towards the Arusian village.

 

They run up to find a crowd of Arusians gathered on a hill overlooking their village. The village is burning, flames dancing all over, and smoke billowing high into the sky.

“What’s happening?” Allura asks, as they stop behind the king.

“Look, attackers!” He cries, pointing down into the flames, and Lee can just make out the shapes of some figures down in the village. An explosion blocks their view, as flames climb high.

“I’ll go in for a closer look.” Keith says, and Lee looks over sharply at him. He steps forward, leaping off the edge and sliding down into the burning village. “Stay here with them!”

“Keith!” Allura shouts, and Lee moves forward as well.

“I’m going after him. Who knows what might be down there.” She says, before she too jumps down, following behind Keith. She sees him jump, turning on his thrusters, and yells at him. “Keith!”

He pauses, looking up, and just in time, as Lee hits the end of her slide, leaping off and into the open air. Keith moves quickly, catching her in his arms and lowering them both down. The heat is extreme, and Lee is thankful for the mask she had grabbed which helped her to breathe down in the smoky, ashy village. 

“What are you doing?” Keith asks, setting her down on the ground beside a burning house. She can hear a slight note of panic, and figures she maybe should’ve given more warning before jumping and expecting him to catch her. But she trusted him to, and he had.

“I’m not gonna let you have all the fun. Besides, you might need back-up.” She replies, before gesturing for him to lead the way. He does so, but not without promising to himself that he is going to bring this up later. The two move closer, peeking through the window of a burnt out house at the attackers. As something falls, a couple of them fall over, and the two come to the same sickening realization at the same time.

“Oh no.” Keith voices their shared thought, and they exchange stricken looks. “They tricked us! It was just a diversion to separate us and thin the castle’s defenses.” Keith speaks into the com, alerting Allura to their discovery.

“We have to get back, now.” Lee says, and without even having to think about it, she hops up, Keith’s arms automatically grabbing her as he starts his thrusters, flying them out of the burning village. 

 

The three of them race up the walkway to the castle, and as they get close, they see a pinkish-purple barrier descending. They speed up, running as fast as they can, but the barrier closes.

“Too late. No!” Keith yells, slamming a fist against it.

“They have control of the castle. They’re taking Voltron.” Allura says, and Lee walks up, placing her hands on the barrier. She closes her eyes, concentrating, before letting out a harsh breath, and dropping her hands.

“It’s the particle barrier, there’s no way we can get through.” She informs them, and Keith looks at her.

“Can we break through the barrier?” He asks, pulling his sword.

“No. And whoever has taken the castle has the crystal, which means they’ll be able to fly the ship. We have to stop them.” Allura replies.

“How are we going to do that?” Keith asks, before turning to Lee. “Can you get through it?”

“No. I’m not even sure if at full strength I’d be able to make a dent in it, but definitely not now, while I’m still recovering.” She says, and Keith nods. They look at each other, and both can see their feeling of helplessness reflected in the other. Then, a voice comes though their coms.

“Keith, can you hear me?” The voice asks quietly.

“Pidge! Is that you? Where are you?” Keith asks, and Lee holds her breath, finding herself still worried despite her anger.

“I’m inside the castle. Sendak has taken over and he’s preparing for launch. He’s got Lance and Shiro.” Pidge informs them. Keith and Lee meet eyes, both turning to face Allura as she begins speaking.

“Pidge listen, if they’ve started the launch sequence then we don’t have much time before lift-off to stop it.” Allura says.

“What do I have to do?” Pidge asks, still speaking quietly, but determination is evident, and Lee can hear the conviction in Pidge’s voice to helping however possible. She feels respect begin to build again.

“You have to get down to the main engine control panel, and disconnect the primary turbine from the central energy chamber. If you can do that, Sendak will have to reset the whole system. That might give us enough time to figure out how to stop them.” Allura instructs. Lee bites her lip, contemplating before speaking up.

“Be careful Pidge. Stay safe.” She says, and from the corner of her eye she sees Allura give her a small smile. She is still hurt, and angry from what Pidge said, but she does still care about the green paladin, and this is potentially extremely dangerous. Keith reaches out, grabbing Lee’s hand, and giving it a squeeze. When she looks over, he gives her a strained smile, and she returns it, squeezing his hand back. As Pidge starts to talk to them again, they both listen intently, still holding gently to each other’s hand.

“Okay Allura, I’m near the turbine. I think it’s started.” Pidge says.

“Then you’ll have to hurry. Cross the catwalk to the main column in the center.” Allura replies.

“Okay.”

“Now, open the hatch. Find the central computer control hub and enter the following sequence…” Allura guides, but is interrupted.

“Wait, wait, wait, wait. Which one is it? All the labels are in Altean.” Pidge asks, and Lee squeezes Keith’s hand tighter. She hadn’t noticed yet that she was still holding it. He felt it, looking up at her worried face, and didn’t say anything, just kept holding her hand. Then, the com goes silent, as the castle begins to fire up, preparing to fly away. The three back up, staring up at it.

“I’ve lost connection with Pidge! Oh no, it’s taking off!” Allura cries, and Lee stares up at the castle, which is ready to leave them behind.

“Come on Pidge, you can do this.” She says, and they wait in tense silence to see what will happen. If the castle will leave, with their friends on it, and stranding them on Arus, or if Pidge will figure it out. Then, suddenly the castle powers down a bit, dropping back fully to the ground, the launch sequence averted. Lee lets out a whoop, throwing herself at Keith and giving him a hug. He returns it, and Allura allows them a moment to celebrate this small victory.

“Alright, well that’s averted for now, but we still have to figure out a way of getting back inside and taking our castle back, and rescuing our friends.” Allura says, and brief moment of celebration over, the two return to the serious problem at hand. They stare up at the castle from outside, the same thought running through all of their heads. 

_‘Let us be on time to save our friends.’_


	6. Episode 5

Lee takes a deep breath in through her nose, holding it inside for a few seconds, before slowly breathing out again. She blocks out the sound of Allura giving Pidge instructions, and instead focuses on clearing her mind. She can’t help Pidge; Allura knows the workings and controls of the castle much better than she, and so instead she will use this time to meditate, as the chaos has only further unsettled her, and she desperately needs to balance herself. So, she tunes out everything around her, knowing she’s safe, as neither Keith nor Allura would let anything happen to her.

As she sinks deeper into her consciousness, she is struck by how long it’s been since she’s last had the chance to truly meditate. Her mind feel strangely empty. On Altea when she meditated, she could always feel the presence of other minds, the stronger the connection, the more presence they could feel. When she meditated, she had always felt her parent’s presence the strongest, a warmth in the back of her mind, but now it felt empty, cold. 

As she feels despair creeping up on her, suddenly she feels faint presences arise in the back of her mind. As she becomes aware of them, she feels them come closer. Tentatively she reaches out, still unsure as to who, or what she may be feeling. Four of them hang back, but one presence reaches out, completing the connection, and she feels a warmth, and hears a rumbling. It takes her a second, but then she places it as purring, and opens the connection further, seeing that it is the Red Lion. She realizes that the other four presences must be the other four lions, and Red rumbles in agreement. 

The warmth of Red’s presence spreads, chasing the despair, and leaving a warm feeling throughout. She feels a mental nudge from Red, and turns back to the lion. Images appear in front of her, memories sent from Red. They are memories of times Lee spent with Red, and the other lions, and Lee smiles as she watches them. Red shows her a memory of her with her parents, then one of her doing magic, then Red shows Keith, and the other paladins. 

She knows that Red wants her to tell the paladins about herself, but she feels anxiety and fear trickle in at the thought of having to stand in front of all the paladins, and tell them everything as they all stare at her. Red sends her another image, this time of the inside of Red’s cockpit, where Keith sits in the pilot’s chair. It is after she was injured in the battle, and Keith holds her in his lap. He is staring down at her, looking stricken, and Lee’s heart is in her throat at the blatant concern he shows. The image stops, and Red chuffs, once again nudging her.

Lee realizes that she doesn’t have to tell all of them at once. She can start by telling one of them, the one she trusts the most, the one she is with right now; Keith. Feeling that she is centered once again, Lee feels Red withdraw, pleased, and as she is leaving her meditative trance, she senses the five lions’ presence remaining at the edge of her consciousness.

Lee takes a deep breath, coming back to herself, and opens her eyes. She sees Allura standing in the middle of the walkway, not far from where she was when Lee started meditating. She looks around, and sees Keith is sitting on the wall a few feet from her. She catches his eye, and he seems to startle a bit.

“Hi.” Lee greets, uncrossing her legs and turning to face Keith. 

“Hey. That help?” He asks, and Lee smiles at him.

“Yeah, it did.” She says genuinely. The two lapse into a brief silence, before she speaks again. “So, anything new come up?”

“Not really. Allura’s been taking care of it, so I’ve just been sitting here watching you.” Keith says, before his eyes widen almost comically wide as he takes in what he says. Lee has to bite her lips to hold back a chuckle, and Keith scrambles to explain. “I mean, I’ve just been watching to make sure you were alright. You still aren’t completely recovered and I didn’t want you passing out and falling over the side or anything.”

“Ah, well thank you. But I’m sure if I fell you would’ve caught me.” Lee says, smile bright and eyes twinkling. Keith ducks his head a bit, smile on his face as well, and faint blush just visible. Lee is reminded of the memory Red showed her, of Keith watching her with concern, and she sighs as she realizes she has to explain everything. Keith looks at her questioningly, and she smiles ruefully. “I’m impressed you haven’t asked about what happened yet, about what I did.”

“Well, it’s personal, and so if you wanted to explain, you would. You don’t demand to know all our secrets, and we shouldn’t do that to you.” Keith says seriously.

“Yeah, I know, but I should tell you. I want to tell you, it’s just…- it’s hard, to talk about.” She says, chewing her lip. 

“It’s okay.” He reassures her, voice soft and gentle. She looks up, meeting his eyes, and she smiles. She takes a deep breath, preparing herself, before beginning.

“My race was known as the Belinors, and they lived on Altea for as long as anyone can remember. From the very beginning, all Belinors had magic. The universe is filled with energy, with a resonance, and Belinors are attuned to this. It’s what gives us our magic, and because we can harness that energy, we use it to try and keep the universe in balance. Shifts and changes happen all the time, which can affect it and the universe tries to regulate itself, but if it gets too unbalanced, it gets a little… chaotic. So we help it out. Or, we did.” Lee explains, and Keith looks fascinated. 

“Wow. So, you guys tried to protect the universe, like Voltron?” Keith asks.

“Sort of. There has to be a balance between good, like Voltron, and bad, like Zarkon, and we helped keep that balance. There are others who use magic, and they use it for evil. But Belinors’ magic is pure, and good. When each Belinor is born, the Elders of their clan will gather and meditate, because with every birth they get a vision that tells them what kind of magic the child will have an affinity for, and how attuned they’ll be.” Lee says, and Keith interrupts her.

“So what kind is your magic?” He asks, and Lee looks taken aback.

“Oh, um – well…” She trails off looking troubled, and Keith’s eyes widen, worried he had offended her.

“You don’t have to answer!” He exclaims hurriedly, and Lee can’t help the chuckle that escapes her as Keith’s eyes are wide in fearful earnestness. 

“No, it’s okay, I just don’t- I don’t know. According to the Elders, mine was different from any they’d seen. I was never able to figure it out before…” Here she pauses to take a breath in. “But it doesn’t matter now. I’ve been training, getting used to using my magic again, and trying to discover more of what I can do with it.”

“Oh, so when you would disappear, and when you said you were training you were practicing your magic?” Keith asks, thinking about the times she had shown up late to meals, or missed their training sessions. 

“Yeah, I wasn’t sure what you guys might think, so I didn’t tell you. I shouldn’t have hid my magic, but I was scared.” Lee drops her head, but Keith reaches over, gently touching her shoulder. She lifts her head up, and Keith smiles at her.

“You don’t have to worry about us accepting you. Some of us may take a little more time than others, but you’re just as much a part of Voltron as any of us.” Keith reassures, and Lee smiles at him. He returns it, squeezing her shoulder, before letting it go, and the two sit in companionable silence.

Suddenly, Allura begins yelling Pidge’s name, and the two get to their feet, moving back over beside Allura. They stand by anxiously as she tries to get in contact with the mice. Lee would’ve helped with the connection, but unlike with Keith and his lion, Allura has experience with this, and can do it quickly herself. Keith and Lee tune back into the com channel, which they had turned off in order to talk. They listen anxiously as Pidge is attacked, unable to do anything to help.

Pidge gets to the generator room where Haxus is starting up the castle again. Pidge confronts the Galran soldier, who calls Pidge a child. 

“I’m not a child. I’m a paladin of Voltron.” Pidge replies, and outside the castle, Lee, Keith and Allura listen intently.

“Yeah, you tell him Pidge!” Lee exclaims, and gets an amused look from both Allura and Keith. She smiles sheepishly before they all focus back on Pidge. Haxus and Pidge begin fighting, but then Pidge begins yelling, screaming, “No!”, and Lee wraps both her arms around one of Keith’s, tensely waiting to be sure Pidge is alright. Then they hear Pidge yelling at Sendak, and Lee breathes a sigh of relief.

It is short-lived, however, as Sendak begins torturing Shiro. Lee gasps as Shiro’s screams echo through the coms. She turns her face into Keith’s shoulder, trying to hide from the anguish she can hear through his voice. Lee hears Sendak talking about how they may go to Earth to see how the rest of the Earthlings compare to Shiro, but that they will all end up just as broken. He talks about enslaving the whole universe, and Lee releases Keith’s arm, becoming angry.

“We have to get in there, we have to help!” She exclaims, facing both Allura and Keith. Her fists are clenched by her side, and anger and determination harden her features. 

“We will soon, we just have to wait on the mice.” Allura says, and Lee huffs, knowing all they can do is wait. Then, she hears a noise behind her and spins around to see the barrier dropping.

“It worked!” Keith exclaims, and Lee feels hope now that they finally have the chance to get in there and help their friends.

“They did it!” Allura cheers, before they all begin running towards the castle doors. Keith and Lee are side by side as they race as fast as they can, with Allura just steps behind them. They get to the room, skidding to a stop just inside.

Sendak has Pidge grasped in his Galran arm, and Lance and Shiro are slumped to the side. Keith draws his sword, and Lee touches her pendant, and her baton forms. She holds it out to her side, pausing as she reviews the scene in front of her. Suddenly, Sendak is blasted from behind, and Lee sees that Lance is awake. 

Shiro immediately jumps up, running at Sendak, despite having his arms still trapped behind him. He is batted away, and Keith runs in with his sword out. He takes a swing, only to be grabbed and thrown by Sendak. Lee snaps into action, flicking her arm and sending her whip wrapping around Sendak’s Galran arm. She pulls hard, sending him off balance and stretching his arm out, just in time for Pidge to jump up and sever it.

“No!” Yells Sendak, running at Pidge, who blocks the attack with the shield. Pidge electrifies Sendak, and Keith runs in, swinging at him with his sword. Sendak blocks it, and Allura screams “Keith, now”. Keith jumps, kicking Sendak in the chest. Sendak stumbles back a few steps, while Keith goes hurtling backwards from his momentum. A barrier forms between them, trapping Sendak inside. Pidge goes over and breaks Shiro’s restraints, while Keith offers a hand to Lance, who accepts it.

“Lance.” Keith says, kneeling down and helping Lance to sit up. “Are you okay?” 

“We did it.” Lance says, and Lee hurries over to the two. “We are a good team.”

Lance and Keith smile at each other, and Lee unfortunately has to interrupt the bonding moment. 

“Lance, are you alright? How do you feel?” She asks gently, and the injured paladin turns to her, grinning. 

“Never felt better, can’t you tell?” He asks, and Lee rolls her eyes, smile pulling at the corner of her lips.

“Well at least your sense of humour made it through alright.” She replies sarcastically, and her and Keith exchange fond but exasperated looks over Lance’s head. Lance begins to laugh, but it quickly turns into a cough, and Lee becomes serious again. “You just gotta hold on a bit longer there Lance, and then they’ll be back with a new crystal and you’ll be all fixed up.”

“Nothing you can do for me now then, Doc?” Lance asks, grin starting to droop. Lee can practically see the exhaustion spreading. She weighs her options, biting her lip. But Lance is becoming weaker, and she knows she doesn’t really have a choice.

“Well, I can try to use my magic to help you.” She offers, and watches Lance’s face nervously. His eyes widen, and he turns to stare at her.

“You mean you have healing mojo and I still look like this?” He asks, and Lee laughs as he isn’t freaked out. “Why didn’t you do that before?”

“I did. I’m sorry, Lance, I would’ve asked first but it was right after the blast, you were unconscious and you weren’t doing well. I-…” Lee is beginning to ramble, but Lance cuts her off.

“Hey, it’s okay, it’s cool. I’m guessing that’s why I only feel like I got run over by a van and not a school bus anymore, right?” Lance asks, and Lee is grateful to him for the jokes, as they cut the tension.

“Yeah, I’m still building my magic back up, so I don’t have much, but I can probably help a little at least.” She says, and Lance nods, lifting his arms up and out in a ‘do your worst’ gesture. She lifts her right hand, white light forming around it. 

“Close your eyes.” She murmurs, and Lance does so. She guides her right hand to his forehead, and Lance feels a gentle warmth, which spreads to his entire body. Lee removes her hand, glow fading away, and Lance blinks his eyes open. He still aches all over, but some of the worst pain is alieved some, and he smiles gratefully at Lee. She and Keith plop down on either side of Lance, to keep him company while they wait for Hunk and Coran to return with the crystal.

 

When they do, Keith and Lee both take one of Lance’s arms over their shoulder to help support him. They get him to the infirmary as Hunk and Coran ready the crystal, and once it’s ready, they put him in one of the cryo-pods.

“After a day in here, he should be fully healed.” Allura reassures them, and Lee looks at Lance’s relaxed face. He looks peaceful, but unnaturally still, and she wonders if she looked the same.

“Pidge, we can’t thank you enough for what you did.” Shiro says, turning to face the green paladin, with the others turning as well. “I can’t help but feel you were meant to be a part of our team. But I understand if you want to leave.”

Lee bites her lip, knowing it is up to Pidge to choose them, and no one else. She is worried though, worried Pidge will leave, and they will be unable to form Voltron. She is also worried, as then Pidge will be out alone, and could get hurt. Pidge had looked down as Shiro spoke, but now a small smile began to grow.

“Dad used to tell me how close he was with his crew members. They were like family. Now I understand what he was talking about. I’m staying with you guys.” Pidge declares, finally looking up at them with a bright smile. “Let’s stop Zarkon for all of our families.”

“Good to have you back on the team.” Keith says, and Pidge’s smile becomes more real, knowing Keith has moved past their fight. Pidge then turns to Lee, unsure as to whether the girl will have forgiven, or even can forgive, what Pidge said. Lee’s face remains neutral for a few seconds, letting Pidge worry, before smiling as well, and Pidge’s smile loses the last trace of tension.

 

Later, Lee is in her room when she hears a knock at her door. She gets up to answer it, and sees Keith standing there.

“Hey!” She exclaims, a little bit surprised. “You wanna come in?”

Keith steps inside, and Lee heads back to her bed sitting down on it and scooting up to sit in the middle. She pats the bed, and Keith comes over, sitting down on the edge. She sees he is nervous, fidgety, playing with his hands, and not looking at her.

“What’s up?” She asks, hoping to prompt Keith into providing the reason for his visit. He fidgets some more, before clearing his throat and turning to face her.

“I just-uh, I just wanted to ask you something.” He says, and Lee raises an eyebrow, wondering what kind of question could get him so flustered.

“Okayyy….” She says, and Keith sucks in a breath through his nose.

“Why did you tell me, first, about your magic, and stuff? I mean, why me, before any of the others?” He asks, and realization dawns on Lee.

“Well, like I said, I was afraid to tell you all, and I figured it’d be easier to tell one of you first, rather than all at once.” She says, and Keith’s expression droops some.

“Oh, I see. And so since I was the one out there, you decided to tell me?” He asks, looking down. Lee follows his gaze and see his hands clenched in his lap. She reaches out, putting her hand over his, and gently prises his fist open, unclenching his fingers. She takes his hand, and he looks back up at her through his fringe.

“No, I told you first because you’re the one I trust the most. I mean, I jumped off a cliff into fire, and trusted that you’d catch me.” Lee laughs slightly and a small grin appears on Keith’s face. Lee then catches her bottom lip between her teeth, becoming serious again, she unknowingly squeezes Keith’s hand. “You once told me that I wasn’t alone. That no matter what, I would always have you. That’s why I trust you the most, Keith.”

Keith flushes, remembering his awkward fumbling from that night. He looks up, meeting Lee’s gaze, and the two stare at each other. Keith swallows, and their trance is broken.

“Yeah, so anyway, if you are talking to the other paladins, feel free to tell them, because I still haven’t got the chance to talk to them yet.” Lee says, and the two stand up, slowly moving towards the door.

“Hah, nice try, but I’m pretty sure this is something you should explain yourself.” Keith says, leaning in the doorway of her room. Lee sighs, dramatically hanging her head, before laughing and looking up again.

“Well, it was worth a shot.” She says, and Keith shakes his head, grinning. Before she can lose her nerve, Lee leans up, placing one hand on Keith’s shoulder for stability, and gently presses her lips to his cheek. “Thank you Keith. You have no idea what your acceptance means to me.”

She smiles, staring up at Keith’s stunned look. He blinks rapidly, looking down at her.

“Good night Keith.” She says, stepping back.

“Good night.” He replies on autopilot, stepping back to let the door close. He stands there a few moments, still trying to process. One hand comes up, pressing to his cheek where he can still feel a phantom echo of her touch. He turns, and dazedly begins walking to his own room. He feels a blush begin to heat his cheeks, and pauses a moment in his doorway. He looks back down towards Lee’s closed bedroom door, and smiles, before he enters his own, door whooshing shut behind him.


	7. Episode 6

The team is gathered around Lance’s pod, waiting for him to wake up. Lee stands just behind Allura, looking over her shoulder. They begin to argue about whether or not Lance has been in there long enough, before they then move on to comparing seconds vs ticks. Lee doesn’t follow them, instead remaining in front of the pod. She stares at Lance, again reminded of just how unnaturally still he is. Lance is loud, and boisterous, and to see him so quiet and still, feels infinitely wrong. Lee also can’t help but to think about when she had to be inside one of the cryo-pods; did she also look so unnaturally still? 

Her musings are interrupted as the pod suddenly whooshes open. Lance slumps, before almost falling out of the pod. Lee rushes to try and catch him, but he weaves to one side. She chases behind him, hoping he doesn’t fall over. The others have yet to notice that Lance is awake, or that he is wandering around. Lance then suddenly changes direction, stumbling the opposite way. Lee again follows him, and this time before he can move again, or fall, she slides under his arm, putting it over her shoulders to support him. 

But even with her support Lance’s weight tries to pull them around, and all Lee can do is direct them towards the group. Having to concentrate to keep Lance, and herself upright, she has yet to be able to inform the rest of the group of Lance’s waking, but he does so himself when they get close.

“You guys having a clock party?” He asks, tone drowsy.

“Ah, Lance, you just ruined it!” Hunk says annoyed, before realization settles in. “Hey, Lance!” He exclaims, spinning around to pick Lance up in a huge bear hug. Hunk lifts Lance up, and away from Lee, who is happy to be freed of his weight.

“What happened?” Lance asks, now supported by Hunk. Allura comes up beside him, and places a hand on his shoulder.

“We can tell you all about it while you get something to eat. Are you able to walk?” She asks, and Lee turns to Keith.

“I thought we wanted him to feel better. If she’s thinking of subjecting him to Coran’s cooking, he’ll just end up back in that pod.” She says, under her breath to Keith. He snorts, and she grins, and then they hear Lance hitting on Allura.

“Classic.” Keith mutters, and Lee laughs, nudging him with her shoulder.

“Well, at least now we know he’s feeling okay.” She says, and the team all move to the dining room. 

When they get there, they all gather around Lance, who sits at the head of the table, eating. Lee sits on a chair to Lance’s left, and Keith is sitting on the table in front of her. One of Keith’s feet hangs down below him, while the other rests on Lee’s chair. His foot is rested on the edge of her seat, with her legs on either side. Lee leans forward, propping her elbow on Keith’s knee, and then resting her chin on her hand. 

“You’d be Sendak’s prisoner right now if not for Pidge.” Allura says, as Lance reaches out his spoon, allowing one of the mice to eat some of his food. 

“Well, you wouldn’t have survived the explosion if Hunk and Coran hadn’t gotten a new crystal.” Pidge rebuffs the praise, and Lance looks away from the mouse, gazing around at his teammates. 

“Wow, thanks everybody. Sounds like the mice did more than you, though.” He says, turning towards Keith, whose arms are crossed.

“I punched Sendak!” He exclaims.

“Yeah, apparently after I emerged from a coma and shot his arm off.” Lance says.

“We had a bonding moment. I cradled you in my arms!” Keith exclaims, throwing his hands up. Lee reaches her other arm up, gently laying her hand on Keith’s other knee. He settles, sitting back, but pouting slightly.

“Nope, don’t remember. Didn’t happen.” Lance says, leaning back and crossing his arms. “Y’know, what I do remember though, is this beautiful figure, and a white light, healing me. Maybe an angel?” 

“Lance, that was me.” Lee says scoffing.

“So it **was** an angel then.” He says, leaning forward, and giving her a flirtatious grin. Lee giggles, shaking her head, amused by his antics.

“You’ve got to be kidding me!” Keith erupts, and Lee turns to him surprised at his outburst.

“What, you don’t think Lee’s pretty enough to be an angel?” Lance asks, raising an eyebrow. Keith’s angry/frustrated face quickly drops into one of complete fear. The others in the room have to stifle laughs as the watch the three’s interaction. Keith starts to get flustered, looking back and forth between Lee and Lance.

“What? No, I didn’t-I didn’t say that!” He exclaims, looking towards Lee, who is looking back at him wide eyed. Keith now starts to get angry as well, turning back to Lance. “I never said that Lance!”

“Oh, okay, so you **do** think Lee is pretty enough to be an angel?” Lance asks, and Keith splutters, cheeks heating in a blush. He refuses to look down at Lee, who is still leaning on his knee.

“I-I-I-I-….”Keith stammers, unable to get anything out, as he becomes more and more flustered. The others watch, still amused as the always cool Keith struggles to find any words.

“You, what?” Lance prods, baiting and taunting Keith. Shiro considers stepping in, deciding that if it goes much further, he will. “Do you think Lee is pretty enough to be an angel or not?”

“I think she’s beautiful!” Keith erupts, and everyone freezes in shock. His cheeks are now about as red as his jacket, and he refuses to meet anyone’s eyes. He feels a hand squeeze his knee, and reluctantly looks down at Lee. She gives him a small, but warm smile, and there is a faint blush dusted across her cheeks as well. Keith swallows, and returns her smile, glad to see she isn’t freaking out. Neither of them notice the grins and smirks exchanged amongst their teammates, but their moment is interrupted by, who could have guessed, Lance.

“So, what happened to Sendak?” He asks, and Keith and Lee draw their gaze away from each other, looking back to the rest of the group.

“He’s frozen in a cryo-pod. We’re keeping him here in the castle.” Allura says, and the mention of their enemy is enough to completely evaporate the amused atmosphere of before.

“Are you sure that’s a good idea?”

“He’s too dangerous to be set free. Besides, we might be able to get some information about Zarkon from him.”

“Soo, what’s the plan now?”

“We have to get back to the balmera and save Shay and her people.” Hunk says, and Lance glances up at his friend, taking note of the serious, determined look on his face.

“Wow, you are really hung up on this lady.” Lance says, and the mouse takes the opportunity of his distraction to practically jump in his bowl and eat his food.

“No, it’s not like that. Look, guys, when you see how Zarkon has treated these people and destroyed their home. They’ve been under his thumb for so long, they don’t even know what it is to be free. It’s up to us to set this right. This is what being a paladin of Voltron is all about! It’s time to man up.” Hunk says, and Lee clears her throat, raising an eyebrow at him. He glances over at her, then to Allura, before he sheepishly adds: “And woman up. Of course.”

“Then let’s get moving. Time to go defend the universe.” Shiro says, and they all get up from the table. As Lee prepares to leave though, she happens to get a glimpse of Pidge’s face. Pidge looks troubled, and Lee wonders what is wrong with the green paladin.

“Wait.” Pidge says, stopping them all. They turn back, and Lee thinks maybe she will find out sooner rather than later what was bothering Pidge. “I have something to say first. I need to come clean, and, I’m afraid this may change the way you all think about me. Just so there are no secrets between us anymore,” Lee shifts, feeling guilty, as she had finally told the rest of the paladins what she was while they were getting Lance something to eat, and she hoped that didn’t make Pidge feel pressured to tell everyone something the paladin wasn’t ready to divulge. “I can’t ‘man up’. I’m a girl. Uh, I mean I can man up because that’s just a figure of speech, I don’t have to actually be a man to ‘man up’, I just have to be tough. But, what I’m saying-…”

Pidge is interrupted as Lance, who had got an increasingly shocked look on his face, suddenly pipes up.

“Wha-wha-what? You’re a girl? How?” Lance shouts, and Pidge flinches. The rest of them however, are calm.

“I’ve known for some time. But I’m glad you’ve shared it with everyone.” Allura says, smiling gently.

“Yeah I figured.” Hunk comments.

“Oh yeah, me too.” Keith pipes in.

“Wait, we were supposed to think you were a boy?” Coran asks, leaning over Allura’s shoulder.

“Pidge, owning who you are is going to make you a better paladin.” Shiro says, and Pidge lets out a huge sigh of relief.

“Besides,” Lee says, walking forward and putting her arm over Pidge’s shoulders, facing the rest of the paladins. “If you want to get actually tough, you don’t need to man up. You need to woman up.”

Lee grins at Pidge, who smiles back gratefully. Here she had been all worried the others would judge her, when instead they were being incredibly supportive. And it seemed even Lee, who had every reason to be angry, and judge her for keeping a secret, was being supportive, and accepting. Pidge allowed herself to lean in slightly towards Lee, who tightened her grip, making it a half hug, before releasing the younger girl, and ruffling her hair. Pidge grumbled, ducking away, but the grin on her face showed she wasn’t exactly annoyed. 

“It’s good to get that off my chest. Now let’s launch this castle ship!” Pidge exclaims, and they all go running off towards the control room. Lance is left standing with his mouth wide open.

“Wait, what? Pidge is a girl and the castle is a ship? How long have I been out?” Lance asks, but the only ones around to hear him are the mice. Until Lee comes running back in, grabbing his arm and dragging him with her to join the others.

The control room moves and shifts, revealing chairs for the paladins to sit in, and the steering pillars rise from the floor for Allura. Lee chooses to stand beside Keith’s chair, leaning on it to hold on. She doesn’t have a chair, something which she is going to take up with Allura soon, because she doesn’t want to always have to stand, and she deserves a chair just as much as the rest of them.

On their way to the balmera, they receive a distress signal from a nearby moon, and with a little debate they go to investigate it. Lee remains quiet, knowing it is not her decision, but something in her gut twists, as she has a bad feeling. It seemed awfully coincidental to her that the first time they are out, a distress signal happens to pop up just as they are passing by a random moon.

Their ship lands, and everyone but Coran goes down to the moon’s surface to find out who was sending the distress signal. The paladins are all in their armour, and Allura stands tall and regal, her upbringing evident. The paladins and Allura file off the pod that carried them to the surface, and Lee is last off. She stalks off the pod, practically prowling after the rest of them. While her expression is neutral, not giving any indication of emotion, the way she moves sends a clear message to the strangers, letting them know that she is in fact dangerous.

“You don’t know how glad we are to see some friendly faces. Most folks don’t want to get tangled up with anyone who’s on the run from the Galra.” The purple man says as they walk up. Lee’s brows furrow the slightest, as she wonders why anyone would proclaim that they were on the run from such a powerful enemy at first meeting. 

“You guys are fighting the Galra?”

“Well I don’t think Zarkon is exactly quaking in his boots at the three of us, but we do what we can. I’m Rolo, this is Nyma, and our cyber unit Beezer.” Rolo introduces. 

“Hi.” Nyma says, and Lee looks over to see Lance practically drooling. Pidge gives the same awed look to the robot. The two dash over and begin fawning over Nyma and Beezer, respectively.

“Cool robot!” Pidge says, flitting around to get a better look at it.

“Hi, name’s Lance.” Lance introduces, clearly preparing himself to flirt. Luckily, there are some paladins who understand the importance of being swift, and Shiro steps up.

“So was your ship damaged in a fight?” He asks, and Rolo gapes for a second before gathering himself.

“Yeah. We’ve really been through it with the Galra. Parts are hard to come by. Luckily we were able to limp to this moon about a week ago. If you didn’t pick up our distress signal, I d-…” he is cut off as Allura jumps in.

“We are happy to help. I am princess Allura of Altea, and from now on you won’t be alone fighting the Galra. You’ll have the paladins of Voltron by your side.” She says, gesturing to the paladins. Lee stands purposefully away from the rest of them, and Rolo clearly picks up on this. He looks back to where Lance and Pidge are still fawning, before turning back to Lee, who is regarding him carefully.

“Okay. And what about you? She’s a princess, and they’re paladins, but which one are you?” He asks Lee, who tilts her head slightly, raising an eyebrow.

“Neither.” She replies, but offers no more information. He nods, pursing his lips slightly, but overall not reacting much to any of them.

“I don’t think they’ve heard of us.” Shiro says.

“It has been 10 000 years.” Keith replies, and Lance, who had still been trying, but not succeeding, to flirt with Nyma, chips in.

“Voltron? 5 robot lions that combine into this big robot, guy?” He says, but there is still no recognition from the three.

“Sounds impressive. I’d love to see it. Or-or him. Them.” Rolo says, struggling to figure out how to refer to Voltron. Hunk interrupts him before he can figure it out though.

“Why don’t we just get to work on your ship? I’m sure we all have places to be.” He says, clearly anxious to get moving, so they can get to the balmera, and Shay.

“Sure.” Rolo says, and he opens up his ship. As he is telling them about what they need, Lee doesn’t bother listening. Instead, she is watching everyone, and everything carefully. She sees Lance trying to impress Nyma, who giggles, as Shiro cuffs Lance on the back of the head, wanting him to focus. When she hears Rolo inviting himself and his crew onto the ship, however, she immediately shifts her focus to him. Hunk stops him from approaching the ship, putting a hand up to prevent him from moving.

“Uh, I don’t think so. You can just wait out here.” He says, crossing his arms.

“Hunk, don’t be rude.” Allura says.

“Come on Allura, there’s no need for them to go onto our ship. I’m sure Hunk has it plenty handled himself, isn’t that right?” Lee asks, turning towards him. They exchange glances, expressing their distrust towards these strangers, and Hunk nods firmly, while she gives a slight nod back. She turns back towards them all with a smile. “Besides, our poor friends here have been fighting the Galra alone for who knows how long, and they’ve been trapped on this moon for a week now. We shouldn’t be putting them to work. They deserve a rest, don’t you think?”

Lee directs her last question towards Allura, who blinks, before agreeing. As Hunk leaves to get the supplies, and the others move around, she turns towards Rolo, who is giving her a dark look. Her smile turns razor sharp, until his attention is drawn, and he looks away. She smirks, before moving to join the others.

They gather around a fire to sit and exchange stories. Rolo tells them about his planet being destroyed, and being taken captive by the Galra. He shows them his prosthetic leg, and Shiro says he knows what it feels like. Lee frowns, as these strangers are one by one getting them all to drop their guards. She still has a bad feeling, and she doesn’t understand how the others can be so quick to trust. Hunk returns with the supplies, and she let out an inaudible sigh of relief, as at least Hunk remains suspicious of them.

Lee watches as Rolo looks through the box of parts. She can hear Shiro and Hunk talking, and as Hunk says he thinks they should just leave them with the box of parts, she sees Rolo freeze, before turning and asking for some thermal pipe. Lee’s eyes narrow in suspicion, and Shiro goes over to talk to Rolo. Allura, Keith, and Lee join him, and Rolo tells them that only people who haven’t been colonized, or who were able to escape are standing up against Zarkon.

“It’s pretty bad out there. You don’t know what you’re up against.” Rolo says, turning back to the box of parts.

“Well why don’t you tell us then?” Lee asks, and he pauses, straightening up, and turning back to them.

“Sorry?” He asks, and she lifts her chin, steely gaze locked on him.

“Well, you said you were fighting against Zarkon, right? And I mean, you seem to know a fair bit, you knew who was in charge of this sector. Isn’t there anything you can tell us about him, about his army, how they fight?” She asks, raising her eyebrows, portraying innocent curiosity.

“Yeah, but that’s just common knowledge, stuff anyone who’s been through these parts would know. I really can’t help you out with anything specific, we try not to fight them head on, you know?” He says, turning and digging through the crate of parts. Lee sees the others nod, seemingly accepting this answer. She has to restrain herself from wanting to smack them, or scream at them. This guy is bluffing so hard, how can they not see how he’s lying? She realizes she will have to lay it out for them.

“Oh, sorry. I just thought you may know something about their ships, or how they fight, maybe.” She says, and Rolo shakes his head.

“Nope, sorry.” He says, and Lee nods speculatively. The others are giving her strange looks, but Lee continues questioning him.

“That’s weird. I would’ve thought you would know something, since you were just fighting them a week ago. That is how you said your ship got damaged, wasn’t it? You said you were fighting the Galra when it got damaged, and just managed to get to this moon.” Lee says, and she sees the others exchange looks, some caution and suspicion finally showing up. Rolo straightens from where he was bent over the crate, slowly turning to face her. Though his expression doesn’t show it, she can see the anger and frustration in his gaze.

“Well, it just all happened so fast, y’know?” He asks.

“Of course.” Lee replies coolly, but the glare she directs towards Rolo is all heat. Keith looks over to Lee, only to see her practically trying to set Rolo on fire with her eyes. He moves up behind her, standing just behind her shoulder.

“Hey, come for a walk with me?” Keith asks, speaking quietly. Lee turns her head, looking back towards him. Their faces are only inches apart, and she sees that Keith is looking concerned, so she nods, agreeing. The others can’t hear what Keith asks, but they watch as Lee nods, and Keith puts his arm around her back, guiding her away.

The two wander away from the rest of the group, not going too far away, but getting out of earshot. Once they are suitably far enough, Keith leads Lee to the foot of a tree, where they both sit. They settle down, and sit in silence for a minute or two before Keith starts talking.

“So, what’s up with you and Rolo?” He asks, and Lee looks over at him sharply.

“What do you mean?” She asks, and Keith raises an eyebrow at her disbelievingly.

“I mean, I thought that I was the one with the hot temper, but you looked like you wanted him to just spontaneously combust.” Keith says, and Lee sighs, looking away from him.

“I just don’t trust him.” She says, and Keith tilts his head, thoughtful look coming over his face.

“Why not? I mean, they all seem to be pretty legit.” Keith says. Lee leans her head back, thumping it against the tree trunk behind her. She shakes her head, letting out a sharp breath through her nose.

“I know! There really isn’t any reason not to trust them, I just…” She trails off, biting her lip. Keith looks over to her. He studies her face, and nods.

“Hey.” He says, waiting for her to turn her head and look over towards him. He raises his eyebrows slightly, giving her a smile. “ **I** trust **you**. Okay? So, just talk to me. Why don’t you trust them?”

Lee looks over at him. He is wearing his Voltron armour, and has his helmet on. It blocks her view of his eyes slightly, the visor changing their colour, and she can’t see his hair at all. She reaches out, gently pulling off his helmet. He lets her, bending his head forward to make it easier. She sets the helmet to the side, looking back at him, and meeting his eyes.

“It doesn’t make any sense, I know, but from the moment we got that distress beacon, I’ve had a bad feeling. This whole thing has just felt too coincidental, and Rolo definitely isn’t telling us the truth. Maybe parts of it are true, maybe he is hiding something, maybe he’s making it all up, I don’t know, but his story doesn’t really make much sense, and you heard him just now. I mean, when we first got here, he said their ship was damaged in a fight with the Galra, and then he said he doesn’t know anything about their ships, or how they fight? That doesn’t make any sense, and I don’t like it.” Lee finishes, crossing her arms over her chest. Keith is quiet, taking in all that she said. He realizes that what she said makes sense.

“You’re right. It does seem strange. But until we know for sure, we’ll just have to wait and see what happens. We can’t just turn on them when we don’t know for sure. Don’t make enemies when there are none, right?” Keith says, repeating the advice she had given him back on Arus, and Lee snorts, before nodding.

“Yeah, I know. I just don’t like it.” She says, and Keith chuckles. She looks at him affronted. “What?”

“Nothing, it’s just weird. Usually you’re the one telling me to hold back, to wait, and now it’s the opposite. It’s weird.” Keith says, and Lee rolls her eyes.

“Well, sorry, I just- I’m overprotective, I guess. It’s just that so far, I mean, it’s been dangerous, and you guys have faced enemies, with only hours of experience and won, and it’s incredible what you’ve accomplished, but this is just the beginning. We’ve barely scratched the surface of what Zarkon is capable of. And it’s so much more dangerous out here, than it was on Arus.” She seems like there is more she wants to say, but she stops, looking away from Keith. 

“But like you said, we’ve accomplished a lot, and we’re only going to get better with experience, right?” He asks.

“Experience doesn’t mean anything!” She cries, and Keith’s eyebrows raise in surprise at her outburst. Lee takes a deep breath, calming down, before looking at him again. “I used to train with the paladins. Before you, 10 000 years ago. I trained with the paladins, with the lions, with Voltron. I trained with them, I knew them, and I cared about them. They were friends, they were, like family. And they had years of experience, working together, fighting together, being Voltron, and it didn’t help them, at all. They’re gone. And there was nothing I could do to help them. They had so much experience, and I figured they knew what they were doing better than I did. I had a bad feeling, and I didn’t say anything, and … I’m not going to make the same mistake twice. If it means being suspicious of everyone we meet, then fine, but I won’t ignore this bad feeling. Not again.”

Lee is emotional, and she drags in a ragged breath. Keith looks at her, as she refuses to meet his eyes. He can see the faintest hint of tears in her eyes.

“Hey, c’mere.” Keith says, reaching out for Lee. He puts his arm around her shoulders, guiding her down to rest her head on his shoulder. “I know we don’t have a lot of experience. And we really have no idea what we’re going up against. But the five of us, when we’re in our lions, when we form Voltron, it just feels right. Like, we were meant for this, almost like the lions were made for us. And Allura, and Coran, and you, you all have a lot of knowledge, and experience with Voltron, and Zarkon. You may have a bad feeling about these guys, and I believe you, but believe me when I say I have a really good feeling about us. When we are all together, I think that Zarkon doesn’t stand a chance.”

Lee absorbs his words, allowing them to sink in, to her mind, to her heart, and deep into her soul. She lets his belief, and his conviction, wash over her. As she thinks about their team; about Allura and Coran, about the other paladins, and about Keith, and herself, she feels a smile creep into place. Because when it comes to them, she has a good feeling too. 

Keith and Lee sit together under the tree, relishing the quiet, and each other’s presence. They are just enjoying sitting together, when they hear the boom of a lion taking off. They look to the sky, before glancing at each other.

“Lance.” They say at the same time, before getting up and making their way back to the others. When they get back to the group, they see Rolo and Beezer rushing onto their ship, and they exchange glances before racing forwards. Just as they arrive at the others, the ship takes off, and they’re left watching it disappear.

“No!” Lee cries out, and the others turn to her, startled. “Where’s Lance?”

“We think he took off with Nyma, in his lion. I’m sure he wouldn’t have gone far.” Shiro says, and she gives him an exasperated look.

“We have to find him, now!” She says, and the others all look confused, except Keith, who is just waiting for the others to catch up.

“You guys don’t think it’s the littlest bit suspicious that Nyma gets Lance to take her somewhere with his lion, and then almost right after, Rolo’s ship is miraculously fixed, and he takes off too?” Keith asks, and a dawning realization appears on their faces. Hunk, however, looks vindicated.

“So we need to track him down now, because Lance may not be far, but if we don’t hurry, his lion might be.” Lee says, and they all jump into action to try and find Lance.

The paladins try to reach him on his helmet, but are unable to. Lee wants them to all get into their lions and start searching themselves, but Allura and Shiro are hesitant to do that when they don’t know for sure anything is wrong. Before they can decide on what to do, Lance’s voice comes through the com, and he lets them know that his lion was stolen by Nyma, and he is chained to a tree. Hunk is gloating, explaining how he knew it, but Lee just wants them to hurry and get the Blue Lion back, and finally they get him to shut up, saying they get it.

As the remaining paladins head out in their lions, Lee agrees to stay back and go find Lance, to get him out. She takes a pod, flying it towards the spring Lance said he was near, until finally her ship picks up on his helmet’s tracker, and she is able to find him. Once she lands, she walks up to Lance, standing beside him and just staring down at him. She raises one eyebrow, until he cracks.

“Okay, okay, I know, I’m dumb, that was stupid, I shouldn’t have let my guard down, I get it. Just let me out of these, please. I’m humiliated enough, don’t you think?” Lance says, and Lee waits one more minute before removing the restraints. Lance sits up, rubbing at his wrists. They get back in the pod, and Lee begins flying them back towards the castle. As they are on their way back, they hear Shiro instruct Keith to go in after the thieves, and flush them out. They don’t hear anything more until they are back at the castle, and waiting in the control room with Allura and Coran.

“Hey Lance, I got your lion.” Keith says over the coms. Lance is so happy he immediately turns to Lee, picking her up in a big hug, and lifting her right of the ground.

“Yeah!” He cheers, releasing Lee. “Thank you Keith.”

He suddenly freezes, happy grin dropping off his face as he looks at Lee. She is staring back at him, an amused smile on her face as she looks at him.

“Sorry Lee. Don’t tell Keith.” He says, and she looks at him funny, eyebrows furrowing.

“What? Why would-…?” She starts, but Lance cuts her off.

“Please! He’d kill me if he knew I hugged his girlfriend.” Lance pleads, and Lee is just utterly lost.

“Why would he kill you, it’s just a hug?” She asks, and then she jerks, the second part of what Lance said sinking in. “Wait, I’m not his girlfriend!”

When the paladins get back, they all decide to leave Rolo and his gang there on the moon they found them on. Their ship is busted now, thanks to Keith’s excellent aim, and so they can wait on the moon until someone decides to help them, like they said they had been doing, before. They all get back into the castle, and start on their way again, towards the balmera, to help free a people from Zarkon’s evil reign.


	8. Episode 7

Having left Rolo’s crew on the moon, the castle was now finally on its way to the balmera. Keith was in his room, feeling restless and debating whether or not to go and get some more training in, when a knock on his door interrupted his musings. He moved towards it, pressing the button, and the door slid open revealing Lee leaning against the doorframe. She was wearing a black tank top, and wide-legged, flowy white pants. She was barefoot, and her hair hung loose down her back. Keith goggled at her, looking up and down, while Lee chuckled, rolling her eyes.

“What, did you think that I didn’t own any other clothes?” She asks, amused, and Keith snaps out of it. He looks at her closer, and sees something underneath her wide grin. Wordless, he steps to the side, and Lee’s grin drops as she slides past him inside. Keith closes the door before tuning to face her, seeing her standing in the middle of the room watching him.

“So, what’s up?” Keith asks, raising an eyebrow at her, and she sighs.

“I don’t know, I feel bored, and restless, and I just- distract me.” She moves to sit on his bed looking at him expectantly. When he doesn’t move, she pats the bed impatiently, until he comes and sits beside her. “Ask me something. Anything you want.”

Keith jerks his head up, searching her eyes. Thoughts race through his head impossibly fast, as all the various questions, and things he had wondered about since he’d met her spring up again. His mind whirls as he tries to decide on one question to ask. His eyes drift as he thinks hard, and he catches a glance of her pendant, standing out strikingly from the black of her tank top.

“Where’d you get that necklace?” He blurts out, surprising both of them. Lee blinks, before looking down to where it hangs against her chest. She lifts it from around her neck, holding it in her hand, a fond, but sad smile crosses her face.

“It was a gift.” She replies, reaching out, she sets it in Keith’s hand so he can look at it closer. He gently cradles it between his palms, lifting it closer to his face. He can see now the amount of detail that has gone into the lion head; it’s obvious that a lot of work was put into making it. “From the old paladins, actually.”

Keith’s head whips up, eyes wide, his fingers reflexively clench around the pendant. He quickly releases his tight grip, looking down worriedly. Lee chuckles, reaching out to take it back.

“Relax, Keith, you aren’t going to break it. Remember?” She asks, touching her fingertips to it, it forms into her baton and disk, and Keith is reminded that it isn’t just a necklace. “It would take a lot to be able to break these.”

The pieces shrink, forming into the pendant again, and Lee slides it over her head. Keith shifts, wanting to ask another question, but hesitant, as he doesn’t want to push too much.

“You’ve mentioned the old paladins before, and I’ve noticed things, like when you were familiar with that weird old paladin food Coran made. And that person in your memory who was helping you train, that was one of the old paladins, wasn’t it? How well did you know them?” Keith asks softly, and Lee smiles.

“Observant.” She comments, before dropping her gaze to his bed sheets, her eyebrows furrowing.

“You don’t have to answer if-…” Keith quickly speaks up, and Lee looks up, startled. A slow smile quirks the corners of her lips, as she shakes her head.

“No its fine, Keith. Honestly, I’m not going to start crying every time you bring up my past. You can ask questions; you’re allowed to be curious.” She tells him, and Keith shrugs, one hand going to the back of his neck.

“I just don’t want you to feel pressured, or anything.” He mutters, embarrassed, and she leans over, squeezing his knee lightly.

“I don’t.” She says simply, catching his eyes so he sees her serious look. “I want to tell you.”

Lee moves back, turning to face Keith. She takes her hand off of his knee, and leans sideways against the wall. Drawing her legs up, she crosses them, and puts her hands in her lap. Keith turns to face her as well, and Lee plays with her hands in her lap a few moments gathering her thoughts, until she glances up to Keith, only to find him already regarding her quietly. 

“Well, you already know that as a child I sometimes accompanied my parents to the castle, and there I met a young Allura, the two of us becoming friends. Allura was a princess, and it can get lonely in a castle when you’re the only kid living there. So, I started spending more and more time up at the castle. Just as we are now, Voltron used the castle as a base, living and training here when not out on missions. Everyone knew about Voltron, and Allura and I were curious children, always exploring. So one time, we snuck down to one of the hangers where the paladins had left their lions. The lions are different now than they were; I don’t know if you guys are more closely connected with them, or what, but they’re more alive now. Back then, they were a lot more…machine.”

“So we sneak into this hanger when we knew the paladins were off in a meeting, and we go in, and the lions are all just sitting there, and they’re massive. We’re just totally stunned, and Allura wanders away while I walk straight up towards the closest one, the Red Lion. And I stopped at its feet, just staring up at it in awe. And then we hear voices, the paladins were coming back, and Allura is calling my name, because we aren’t supposed to be down there, but I couldn’t look away. And they enter the room, and I can hear one of them ask what we’re doing, because Allura wouldn’t leave without me, and then suddenly the lion moves, leaning down, and nuzzles against me.”

“This is one of the memories we saw.” Keith states, and Lee nods, smiling.

“Yeah. But you didn’t see the best part because after that there were 5 paladins completely freaking out, as I giggled away while this enormous lion nuzzled me. The paladins were stunned, because the lions had never moved by themselves before, and so obviously they were curious about how, and why. When my parents came to pick me up that day, and found out what happened, they told me about the vision the elders got at my birth. They’d never told me what was seen before then, but they told me, and all the paladins that night. In the vision, they saw a massive white lion, and my parents had always known that I was different because of its size, and the colour, and when the paladins told them what happened, it only confirmed that. So starting then, once a week I’d go up to the castle and visit the lions, so the paladins could study our interactions, and try and figure out what was happening, exactly.”

“And spending all that time together, I got closer to the paladins, and they became like family to me. When I was older, for my birthday they gave me this pendant. They designed and made it themselves, all of them doing some sort of work on it, and they made it so that it was triggered when I pushed some of my magic into either the baton or the disk, or both, they would form, or go back into a pendant. The one you saw in my vision was one of the old paladins. The baton was specifically from him, cause he figured I needed a weapon, and some sort of training by that point. The others were more reluctant about it; they didn’t think I’d really need to be trained for combat. Y’know, since they were Voltron, but I guess he could see what I didn’t even know then.”

“What?” Keith asks, leaning forward slightly, completely entranced in her story. 

“That I really hate sitting on the sidelines.” She says wryly. Keith just gazes at her, a sad sort of understanding on his face as she laughs scornfully at herself. “It’s even worse now, because I know how to fight, and I’ve been trained, I know I can handle myself! And instead of helping, I’m just useless, sitting up in the castle, watching and listening but not doing anything.”

Keith reaches out, grabbing her hands, which were clenched in her lap, and she looks up at him, more vulnerable than ever before. 

“You are **not** useless.” He says, complete conviction in his voice, and Lee finds she can’t look away from his eyes, which stare into hers, earnestness, and honesty, and so much more in his gaze. “We never would have been able to form Voltron that first time without you. And you’ve been there, helping us this whole time, even though you lost everything. Trust me, we would be a lot worse off without you. I know I would be.”

Keith releases one of her hands, reaching up to brush aside a piece of her hair. His hand lingers, drifting down the side of her face as they stare into each other’s eyes. A tenseness builds up between them, not one of uncomfortableness, but born from anticipation, and it builds between them until-…

“Attention team, we will be reaching the balmera shortly, so suit up and meet on the bridge.” Allura’s voice rings out over the intercom, and the moment is broken, Keith jerking his hands away like he was scalded, colour spreading across both of their cheeks. They both get up, awkwardly standing in front of each other.

“Well, I-I have to go, um, get ready.” Lee says, moving towards the door.

“Yeah, yeah, me too.” Keith mumbles, turning to watch her. Just as she reaches the door, which whooshes open in front of her, he speaks up again, making her pause in the doorway. “Lee? Seriously, you aren’t useless, okay?”

A smile breaks out over her face as she walks through the door, heading back to her room to get suited up. When she enters the control room, she is just finishing up her braid, the rest of the paladins already there. She moves to stand beside Keith, and Allura starts to talk. She only partially listens, as she knows there won’t be any instructions for her, since she won’t be doing anything except staying on the coms anyway. Despite what Keith said earlier, she can’t help but feel useless; she wants to be able to go out with them and fight, to help the paladins, and watch their backs, but she knows she can never keep up with the lions with only her disk.

 

Lance asks what the plan is, making some strange noises with his mouth, and gestures to accompany them. Lee furrows her brow in confusion as she watches him, unsure as to what he is doing.

“What was that noise?” Keith asks, apparently similarly confused.

“Laser guns.” Lance replies, and this sparks the other paladins to all begin comparing the sounds of a laser. As they are doing this, Keith turns towards Lee, and seeing how she still looks distracted, he is sort of worried.

“You okay?” He asks, leaning in towards her and speaking softly, so as not to attract the attention of the other paladins. Lee turns to him, unconsciously smiling slightly as she saw his concern for her.

“Yeah.” She answers simply, smiling wider to try and reassure him. He continues to regard her, an eyebrow lifted. Seeing he doesn’t believe her, Lee sighs lightly. “I’ll be fine.”

Reluctantly, Keith accepts this answer turning back to the rest of the group just as Shiro suddenly pipes up with his interpretation of the sound of the laser.

“What?” Keith exclaims, almost offended by Shiro’s poor attempt at making the sound of a laser shot. The other paladins all speak up, before Allura interrupts, drawing them all back on task. Lee zones out again, knowing she isn’t really needed in this discussion.

They stand gathered around Allura as they figure out their plan of attack. Hunk reminds them all that the balmera is alive, and so they decide on a plan to try and draw out the majority of the Galran forces, while being careful not to accidentally hit the balmera. Each paladin is given a task, while Allura says that she and Coran will monitor them and assist with tactical support from the castle. As they all separate, Keith watches as Lee slumps over to her chair where she monitors the coms, flopping into it. He runs to his lion, preparing to head down, but makes a mental note to bring it up to the others to see if they noticed anything up with Lee lately.

 

The lions land on the frozen piece of Galran equipment, Shiro congratulating them, saying they did a great job. They had all noticed that Lee was being particularly quiet on the coms. She never said too much, as she didn’t want to distract them, but normally they would hear comments from her, especially when something new was discovered.

“Hey, Lee, did you see what my lion and I just did? Pretty cool huh?” Lance asks, and the others roll their eyes and scoff at Lance’s poor pun. They all wait in anticipation though, getting almost worried at Lee’s continued silence.

“Yeah Lance, real cool.” She says, and though they are relieved at hearing her voice, they all notice that she just doesn’t sound the same. She sounds subdued, and Keith’s worry only increases from earlier. He really wants to ask the others what they think, if they have any idea what is wrong with Lee, but with her listening it is impossible for him to bring it up then. Having no other choice, Keith turns his attention back to their mission, noticing something strange about that too.

“Hey, where are all the troops?” He asks, and Hunk says that last time, there were a ton of Galran soldiers around. Allura reveals that the sensors have placed a bunch of Galran ships in a hanger below the surface, and Shiro says that they are luring them in, but they have no choice other than to go. The paladins all split up, parking their lions, and continuing through the caves on their speeders.

Keith and Lance reach the hanger, and decide on a plan. They are going to head to the control room and shut the bay doors, so that the ships can’t leave the hanger. As they are about to head out though, Lee suddenly speaks up, freezing them in their tracks.

“Keith, Lance, please be careful. I-I have a bad feeling about all of this.” She says, and Keith’s eyes widen in recognition. He remember their talk, back on that moon, and how Lee had been right to suspect Rolo, and he recognizes her warning this time.

“Got it Lee. We’ll watch our backs.” He replies, and Lance gives him a slight questioning look, to which Keith shakes his head, and responds with a look that says he will explain later.  
As Lee watches, and listens, she knows that all of them can see that the Galra are planning a trap, luring the paladins in by using Shay as bait, only to ambush them. Simultaneously frustrated, angry, and scared, Lee pushes back from the control panel she was seated at, ripping her headset off, she sets it down and walks over to where Allura stands at the controls.

“Allura, please, it’s an ambush. The Galra are planning something. And if they get trapped in the core, there’ll be nothing we can do to help them.” Lee pleads, and Allura looks to her. Her face is hardened, but Lee sees the struggle in her eyes.

“We can’t just leave Shay down there, Lee.” She says, and moves to turn back to face the screens, when Lee grabs her arm, pulling her back to face her.

“I know. But let me go and help them. We have no idea the extent of what my magic is capable of, and the Galra will be completely caught off guard. They’ll have no idea I’m coming, and no idea what I can do.” Lee proposes, and Allura is caught off guard by the complete conviction and determination she can see in her friend.

“But Lee, that’s just it. **We** have no idea what you are capable of, what your magic can do. It will be very dangerous down there, and-…” Allura is cut off by Lee, whose expression is complete fire and defiance.

“Allura, asking you was just a courtesy. I’m going, and you can’t stop me. I’ll take a pod down, and use a tracker to rendezvous with the paladins.” Lee says, and she turns to leave the control room. Allura can only watch in stunned silence, until Lee is almost at the doors.

“Lee wait!” She calls, and the other girl pauses, turning to face her. Allura thinks of how she could easily lock the doors, and prevent Lee from leaving the control room, or lock her in the hangar, not allowing the pod out, but she sees the determination, and the courage, and the pleading in her gaze, and Allura knows that Lee has to do this. “Please, be careful down there.”

Lee smiles, relieved, as despite her talk she really doesn’t want to have to go against Allura. She wants her best friend’s support, and is glad to see that she has it. It feels good to know that Allura trusts her, has faith in her.

“Don’t tell the paladins that I’m coming down. I don’t want them worried or distracted. I’ll keep on a private com back to the control room to keep in contact with you guys.” Lee says, before turning and exiting the room, racing down to a hanger to get in a pod. As the doors close behind her, Coran turns to Allura.

“When she says she doesn’t want _them_ to be distracted and worried, she was really talking about _Keith_ , wasn’t she?” Coran asks, and a smile creeps up on Allura’s face.

“Most definitely.” She replies, and the two look at each a minute, before bursting into excited whispers.

“So you see it too?”

“Oh yes, it’s so obvious. But the two of them are too oblivious to see it.”

“Oh, but it’s so cute how they fumble around each other!”

“Yes! It’s adorable!!”

The two begin giggling together, before freezing in shock as a voice comes through on the coms.

“What are you two giggling about?” Lee asks, and they exchange scared looks, wondering how much she heard.

“No-nothing, why? What did you hear?” Coran asks, terrified, as he knows very well that Lee could easily beat him up. 

“I put the helmet on, set up the private com, and all I can hear is you two giggling away. Should I be worried?” Lee asks, and Allura sighs relieved, before replying.

“Only worry about your mission ahead of you. You will need to focus, concentrate on the task at hand, as it will certainly be difficult, and dangerous.” Allura instructs, successfully diverting Lee’s attention. She powers up the pod, flying herself down into one of the deep holes on the balmera. She parks the pod, and pulls out a handheld screen that shows the same map as the giant screen up in the castle. She uses it to make her way through the balmera avoiding any remaining Galra wandering the tunnels, and keep an eye on the paladins’ position.

She sees that all of them will be arriving at the core any moment, and seeing an entrance just ahead of her, pushes herself faster, her instincts, that feeling in her gut, screaming at her. She throws herself forward, and goes tumbling along the ground, until she ends up sprawled out flat.

The paladins all start, staring in shock as a white blur shoots through one of the entrances, door slamming shut behind her. They recognize it as Lee, and watch as, with a lack of her usual coordination, she finally ends up a heap on the ground, limbs akimbo. 

“Lee?” Keith calls, jogging towards her. She is slow to get up, the bad feeling she had practically buzzing inside her. Keith reaches her side, and grasps her arms, helping her into a standing position. The other paladins and Shay begin to move towards the two. “What are you doing here?”

Keith asks harshly, gripping tightly to her arms. The tight grip and harsh tone actually help to ground her, pulling her from her zoned out state back to the present. She looks up at Keith, and sees the concern, and worry, and even the anger, and recognizes that they are the same emotions she was feeling, trapped on the castle and unable to help. It is look of a person who knows that someone they care about is in a dangerous situation, but is helpless to prevent it. It’s almost unconscious, the way she reaches up and grasps onto the sleeves of his suit, as he still holds onto her.

“There was no way I was going to sit up there, and watch, and listen, as you guys walked straight into an ambush!” She exclaims, before lowering her voice to speak only to him, her eyes searching out his own, looking for understanding. “I had to be here.”

She catches his eyes, holding onto his gaze as she wordlessly urges him to understand. It takes a few moments, but then his eyes soften, and he nods slightly. Lee allows a small smile to come across her face, immensely relieved that he understands her reasoning, even if he isn’t happy about it. They abruptly let go of one another as they are reminded of the situation at hand. 

Shay informs them that the Galra set this trap with her as bait, but she doesn’t know what they are planning. As they try to figure a way out, they contact Allura, who reveals that the castle is heavily under fire, and tells them that they need to find a way out quickly. Shay moves to contact her people, to see if they can help them all escape. She presses her hand to the balmera, and they all wait anxiously for something to happen. 

Allura contacts them to tell them that the Galra are moving in to take the lions, removing them from the balmera, and Lee can only hover, her and Keith sharing worried glances. Finally, the area around one of the entrances moves, and Shay’s family rushes in. The paladins all race off towards their lions, Lee hopping onto the back of Keith’s speeder, and catching a ride in his lion.

The paladins all get to their lions just in time, piloting them away from the Galra, and flying up above the balmera. They fly off, taking down hordes of Galra ships easily. Lee stands behind Keith’s pilot chair, arms wrapped around the top of it to hold herself steady as they whip around. She watches in awe at Keith’s masterful piloting, and the connection he has with his lion, as she had never seen it before from inside.

As she is looking around, she happens to catch a glance of the huge Galran ship firing a particle beam at the castle, and she gasps, pointing it out to Keith. Allura quickly calls out for their help. They form Voltron, Lee having to hold back many exclamations of how cool it was, because as awesome as seeing Voltron form was, being inside it was even better.

Voltron flies up, pushing the ship up so that the laser is no longer firing at the castle, before quickly moving out of the way of the return blast sent from Allura and Coran. They watch as the ship blows up, destroying the entire fleet of Galran fighter ships as well, and cheer, complimenting Allura and each other. Lee moves around the side of Keith’s seat, placing herself on the arm of his chair, she reaches out and throws her arms around him. The Red Lion suddenly jerks, which sends Lee off balance, and she slides onto Keith’s lap. A blush heats her cheeks, and from under his helmet she sees one on Keith’s face as well. 

Mentally shrugging, she throws her arms back around his neck, pulling him down towards her. Initially tense, and frozen in place, Keith quickly relaxes, wrapping his own arms around her back to hold her on his lap, and buries his face into her hair, ignoring his helmet for now, as he doesn’t want to move a hand to take it off.

Suddenly, something comes crashing out of the sky, and Keith reflexively tightens his grip on Lee, holding her securely to him as she flinches closer. She opens her eyes, staring at him in worry, and they exchange nervous looks as they realize they aren’t anywhere close to being finished this fight.


	9. Episode 8

Lee gets off of Keith’s lap, returning to her spot behind his pilot’s chair, as the paladins ready themselves for whatever monster may come out of the pod. As Voltron draws its sword and shield, and Shiro instructs them to hold their ground, Lee looks over Keith’s chair anxiously observing the massive thing.

“Guys, I don’t like this. I have a really bad feeling. I mean, why would they send another of the same type of monster, when you guys already defeated it pretty easily?” Lee questions, and the other paladins all realize the soundness of her logic, now even more nervous, they turn their attention back to the pod, which drops open. The creature inside seems to power on, before releasing an energy blast that, although blocked by their shield, still pushes Voltron back.

“It’s not candy.” Hunk cries, and despite the fear and nervousness at the new monster, he still feels somewhat disappointed. Of course he knew how unlikely it was that it was actually filled with candy, but they were trying to save the universe, couldn’t they ever get a break! 

“And it’s definitely not the same monster.” Lance states, as Voltron moves to the side, out of the way of the energy blast still firing.

“We need to draw its fire away from the balmera’s surface!” Voltron quickly moves around, the creature once again firing at them, and they block it with their shield again, before moving in to take a slash at it. The creature fires a beam, hitting them in the back, and they swiftly fly off, dodging until they land and get their shield up. Lee can only stand and watch from inside the Red Lion as Voltron trips, the shield breaking apart as it falls. Shiro instructs them to disassemble, and perform evasive maneuvers, but then the creature suddenly reveals it has lasers all down its arms, and shoots off a barrage of laser fire.

After attempting to take down the creature and failing, everyone is pretty beat up, and so the castle retreats into orbit while the paladins pilot their lions into the mine shafts for refuge. Shiro, Hunk, Keith and Lee all end up in the same one, exiting the lions to meet up with Shay’s family. As they speak, Lee can’t focus, as she feels some sort of presence nudging against her mental barriers. She hesitantly opens herself, reaching out to try and figure out what was trying to communicate with her. Just as she finds and touches upon the presence, suddenly everything is shaking, and they can hear the balmera crying out. But Lee doesn’t just hear it outside, she is hearing it inside her head, feeling it, as the presence trembles against her mental barriers.

“Do you guys feel that over there?” Hunk asks the other two paladins, who had taken refuge in a different mine shaft.

“Yeah, we feel it.” Lance answers him.

“It’s that sound again. What is that?” Pidge questions.

The three paladins are looking around, trying to figure out what it happening, when suddenly with a gasp, Lee falls to her knees, her palms landing flat on the ground as she catches herself. 

“It’s the balmera.” She gasps out, and small cracks begin to form, as Shay’s family begins to explain. Keith moves closer to Lee, crouching down by her side as Rax explains to them that the sound they are hearing is the balmera, and the crumbling is because it’s dying.

Keith helps Lee up, supporting her with an arm around her waist as they gather around, discussing their situation. With the balmera dying, anyone left on it will be crushed as it finally crumbles and breaks apart. Lee is only half listening to their talking though, as she can still hear the balmera’s cries inside her head, still feel it’s presence at the edge of her consciousness. Hesitant, but feeling the need to understand what it is the balmera is trying so hard to communicate to her, she opens herself wider, allowing the balmera to enter her consciousness.

Almost immediately after she does this, Lee practically collapses, only Keith’s grip around her waist and quick reflexes keeping her from sprawling to the floor. He holds her, his arms wrapped around her back, and she can see his face in front of hers, concern and worry and fear over taking it. She sees as his mouth opens, and his lips move, and distantly registers that he is asking her what is wrong, and if she’s okay. But the balmera’s presence is completely overwhelming her mind, pushing aside anything else. Now more thoroughly connected, she can finally understand what the balmera is saying.

“The balmera!” She gasps out, her hands reflexively gripping onto Keith to try and anchor herself in the storm of thoughts and emotions swirling inside her. “I hear it. I can feel it.”

Shiro and Hunk exchange confused looks, while Shay’s family look to each other in surprise. As their coms are still on and open, the other two paladins and Coran and Allura in the castle can hear what Lee is saying, but all of them are similarly confused.

“It’s in so much pain.” Lee continues, voice catching. “It knows it’s dying, but it doesn’t want to. It knows that so many lives depend on it. It knows the terrible things that have been done to its people, and it knows that even now a monster is attacking those that tried to save it. It wants to help. But it’s so weak!”

Lee quiets, but her eyes remain far away, and she is still not responsive. Keith tries to wake her up, calling to her, and gently shaking her shoulders, but still nothing. He turns to the Balmerans, keeping Lee cradled to his chest.

“What’s happening to her? What’s going on?” He demands, staring at them. They are taken aback, exchanging glances, before the grandmother steps forward.

“We do not know, something like this has never happened before. We only communicate shallowly with the balmera, sending messages through it, never speaking directly to it ourselves. I’m sorry, but we know no more than you.” She explains, and Keith turns back to Lee, angry, and scared, and worried. 

“Allura, do you know anything about what may be happening with Lee. She’s in some sort of trance, or something, and you heard, it’s like she was speaking to the balmera earlier.” Shiro questions Allura, who bites her lip in thought.

“I know that sometimes, when my people would come to a balmera for a crystal, one of Lee’s race would accompany them, and assist during the ritual. It was said that they could form a closer connection with the balmera, but the details I am unsure about.” Allura says, and before anyone can say any more, Lee sucks in a sharp breath, blinking rapidly.

“Lee, can you hear me? Are you okay?” Keith asks, and she blinks up at him, drawing in a deep breath, she nods slightly.

“Yeah. I’m-I’m okay.” She says, straightening up to stand on her own. Keith hesitantly unwraps his arms to let her stand, but places one around her shoulders, just in case.

“What happened Lee?” Shiro asks, and she looks to find all of them staring at her.

“The balmera was trying to communicate with me, so I let it into my mind so that I could hear what it had to say. But once I let it in, I was overwhelmed by its pain, and the intensity of its emotions. It feels things. It cares; about the people who live on it, who call it home, and it knows what you guys were trying to do, and it wants to help, so much, but it can’t. It is dying. Not just, if this doesn’t stop soon it’ll be in trouble, it’s dying right now. As in, hours left, at the most, but definitely sooner if that creature keeps it up. The balmera is so weak already, that every hit it takes is pushing it closer to death. That creature will kill it, within minutes if something isn’t done!” Lee cries, and they set up a plan for the paladins to draw the creature away, while Allura and Coran bring the ship down to evacuate the Balmerans. 

They ask Shay to contact the rest of the Balmerans, but she replies that she doesn’t know what they will say about leaving the planet. Allura decides that she is coming down to the balmera so that she can lead the Balmerans in the evacuation. As they are talking about this, Keith pulls Lee to the side to talk to her.

“Listen, Lee…” He begins, and she can see that he looks nervous. She sees him glance back towards his lion, abruptly cluing in to what he is trying to say.

“It’s alright Keith.” She interrupts, smiling, and he cuts himself off, looking at her in surprise. “I’ll stay here.”

He sighs, relieved, as he wasn’t really sure how to tell her that she couldn’t come back up with him in his lion. Lee understood though, she knew he was worried, and though she was once again being made to sit at the sidelines, she knew there wasn’t anything she could do to help as a passenger inside his lion. At least down on the balmera, she could help. 

As the paladins prepare to leave, Lee throws her arms around Keith’s neck, dragging him in close to her. He quickly wraps his own arms around her as well, returning the tight hug.

“Please, just be careful.” She whispers, words muffled slightly as she has her face pressed into his armour.

“You too.” He replies, his own head tucked close to hers. They break apart as Shiro yells out that it’s time to go, and with one last look, Keith turns and runs to his lion, the paladins swiftly flying up and out of the mine and engaging the creature.

Lee waits with Shay’s family, until they see Allura come flying down into the mine. Before she has even fully stopped landed, Lee is racing towards her.

“Allura!” She cries, running to meet her. The two girls hug, both relieved at seeing the other okay. Allura informs the paladins she’s made it, and the two race over to Shay’s family. Both of them listen in shock as Shay and her family tell them that all of the Balmerans want to stay with the balmera, wanting to share its fate. They thank them for all of their help, but say they don’t want them risking their lives anymore. Lee stares at them, feeling anger rise inside her, at their willingness to give up their lives, and to ignore what the balmera itself wants. She knows, she felt that the balmera cared, it wanted them all to live, and she could feel even now as the balmera was upset at their decision.

Luckily, Allura was made to be a princess, made to be a leader, as she is able to communicate with all the Balmerans, the balmera assisting her in spreading her message to every single one of them, and with her words she is able to convince them to live. She orders them all to caves just below the surface, and they all race up that way.

As Allura, Lee, and Shay’s family make it to the surface to meet the castle, the balmera shudders beneath them, crumbling and cracking. The rest of the Balmerans are all trapped, unable to reach the surface, and the balmera’s cries become louder as it is on the brink of destruction, and knows that its people won’t be able to make it out.

“Allura, there’s no way we can get them all out with the balmera like this!” Lee exclaims, turning to face Allura. She sees the princess looking conflicted, scared, and unnaturally lost.

“But what can we do?” She cries, and suddenly, Lee is hit with an epiphany.

“I have to go down there!” She says, and Allura whips back to face her from where she had been gazing out over the balmera.

“And do what? It’s too dangerous, you would be trapped!” Allura interrupts her, but Lee shakes her head.

“It’s the only chance we have! If I can get to the core, and try to heal it like I did for Lance, I may be able to keep the balmera alive for long enough to get everyone off of it!” Lee exclaims, and Allura’s face crumples as she is forced to decide between risking the life of her best friend, and potentially saving hundreds of lives.

“How am I supposed to make this decision Lee? Doing this may be the only way to save the rest of the Balmerans, but it means you risking your life. It’s extremely dangerous!” Allura yelled.

“You don’t have to.” Lee said, a rueful smile on her face as she looked at Allura. Allura’s eyes widened as she realized the meaning behind Lee’s words, reaching out for her. But Lee had already spun around, running towards the edge of the mine shaft. She leaped off the edge, touching her pendant, her disk formed and she rode down the side of the mine shaft, dodging Balmerans and falling debris until she reached the bottom. Throwing open her mind, she allowed the balmera to guide her.

“Lee, please, you’ll die!” Allura cries out over the com. She catches the attention of the paladins, who are now suddenly alert, wondering what is going on.

“What? Allura, what’s happening? Is Lee okay?” Keith rapidly fires off his questions. Lee can hear him, but she is racing towards the balmera’s core, and she isn’t sure she could answer them anyway.

“Lee is going to the core of the balmera to try and stabilize it long enough for us to get the Balmerans evacuated.” Allura replies, fighting her emotions back under control, as she has a duty, a role to perform.

“What! But the entire thing is breaking apart! She could be crushed, or get trapped down there, or the balmera could explode!” Keith cries out, just barely dodging an attack from the creature. 

“She knew the risks when she went down there.” Allura tells him, but that isn’t good enough for Keith, who now tries to reach Lee directly.

“Lee? Lee! Come on, I know you can hear me! What are you doing?” He yells at her over the coms, and everyone chooses to remain silent, not getting in the middle if this. Finally reaching the balmera’s core, Lee approaches it, able to hear its cries even louder now. However, she blocks them out for a moment, as she knows she has to finish this conversation, has to make Keith understand.

“It’s the only way.” She says, and Keith falls silent. The entire com is deathly silent as Lee’s quiet voice reaches them. No one dares to interrupt her, not even breathing too loudly in fear that it may drown out her words. “We came here to save the Balmerans, and that’s what I plan on doing. Everyone has their job; Voltron distracts the creature, Allura and Coran evacuate the Balmerans to the castle, and I’m going to keep the balmera alive so that it doesn’t crumble apart before all the Balmerans are safe.”

“But what about you? How do you plan on getting out of there, after all the Balmerans are evacuated?” Keith demands, and with his attention focused solely on Lee, it is only the quick action of Hunk body slamming him out of the way that saves him from a direct blast from the creature.

“Don’t worry about me, focus on that huge monster you’re supposed to be fighting! I’ll figure a way out, and I’ll see you after we save all the Balmerans and you trash that thing!” Lee states, but it isn’t enough to completely reassure Keith.

“Promise me.” He says, and Lee is taken aback. All the others on the coms ignore the emotion they can hear in his voice, striving to give the two as much privacy as they can, considering they are all hooked into the com. “Promise me you’ll be up here, with us, after all of this is over. Promise me that I’ll see you again.”

“I promise.” Lee breathes, voice shaky, and silence rains until the balmera shudders again. “I have to go now, I’m sorry.”

Abruptly Lee cuts herself off, closing off her com-line, and then removing it, tossing it to the floor. She can’t be distracted now. She walks up to the balmera’s core, and as she places her palms against it, she opens her mind up completely to it. She can feel how the balmera is virtually on its last breaths, and she pours her energy into it, practically forcing life back into the dying creature.

Allura and Coran, who were trying to figure out a way to get the Balmerans evacuated, notice as the quakes of the balmera turn to trembles, and then stop.

“She did it! Lee stabilized the balmera!” Allura exclaims happily. However, the Balmerans are still trapped, and they aren’t sure how they will be able to get them out. But then they notice that the ground beneath the ship is being healed, and Shay’s grandmother places her hand to the balmera.

“The balmera, it’s being healed. Energy, life, it pours out from its core!” She gasps, and Allura and Coran exchange glances. 

“It must be Lee. She must be giving the balmera so much energy, that she is actually healing it, and not just keeping it alive.” Allura states, and Coran gets a thoughtful look on his face.

“Just like the ceremony.” He says, and Allura whips around to face him, wide eyes, and beaming grin.

“That’s it! Coran, the ceremony! Lee is already giving so much energy to the balmera, if we can get in contact with her, if I can connect with both her, and the balmera, then between us, we should be able to revive it!” Allura exclaims, and they all begin to get excited, as they finally have a viable solution to save the Balmerans, and the balmera itself.

Allura puts her hand to the balmera, concentrating on sending a message. Lee, who is concentrated on the balmera, is surprised to hear Allura. She had turned her com off, and she is confused as to how she could be hearing Allura’s voice, when she realizes she is hearing it inside her head.

_‘Lee, listen to me. We have a plan. We are going to perform the ancient ceremony to revitalize the balmera. With the amount of energy you are giving it, it’s already improved immensely. But, I think that if you and I work together, we can heal the balmera completely, and bring it back to full health. What do you think?’_

_‘Let’s do it Allura.’_

Lee replies, and she open her mind further, reaching out to Allura, and forming the connection between the two of them, and the balmera. The two girls, Lee in the core, and Allura on the surface, connect to each other, Lee using her magic, and Allura using her own and the ship’s energy, and pushing it into the balmera. Lee feels Shay’s family connect around Allura, and can feel as the Balmerans all connect to the balmera, giving some of their own energy to the great creature which had sheltered them for so long. 

Lee can feel as the life begins to return to the balmera, and she can feel the energy being gathered together, gathering her own power until, without any verbal signal being given, both girls give one last huge push of power into the balmera.

From in the sky, the paladins stare in awe as suddenly, a wave of light spreads out over the surface of the balmera, covering the entire thing; they see it heal before their eyes. The light slowly fades away as Voltron drops to the ground in front of the creature, which is sparking. It starts shooting at them again, no longer able to use its arms, and Voltron dodges, until coming in close and punching it. The creature is sent flying, and lands in a heap in the distance, on the other side of the castle.

Ritual complete, Lee feels as Allura leaves the connection, and as the Balmerans all stop as well. But, just as she is about to break off the connection as well, the balmera holds onto her mental presence, and Lee pauses, sensing its urgency. The balmera pushes further, stretching their connection even more, until an image appears before Lee. She realizes she is looking at the surface of the balmera, and that this must be a live image of what is happening. She can see the castle, and watches as the paladins rush towards where she can see  
Allura collapsed in Shay’s arms. She sees that Allura is awake and seemingly okay, and is relieved that everyone is safe.

As she thinks that, she can feel the balmera’s urgency increasing, and so she looks for what the balmera is trying to show her. Suddenly, she sees the creature rising up once again in the distance. As she feels both hers, and the balmera’s desire to protect everyone, the connection strengthens absolutely, the two thinking, and acting as one being.

 

The creature rises up, preparing to fire on them all, when suddenly a spike of crystal rises up, knocking the monster backwards; it stumbles and falls. Then, they see the crystal spike retreat back into the balmera slightly, until it sticks out halfway, splitting open at the top like a flower looming to reveal a figure standing on top of it. The figure stands, braid whipping in the wind, and tell-tale white suit on.

“Is that..?” Shiro trails off, all of them staring at the figure who stands between the creature and them. 

“It’s Lee!” Allura exclaims, struggling into a standing position. The rest of them can only stare in shock, and confusion, wondering how she got there, and what was going to happen. Keith steps forward, wide eyes on Lee. Then, their attention is drawn by the creature, who stands up again.

Lee flings her hands out to the side, and they all watch as white energy flows from her hands, and from the crystal, moving above her head. The energy forms into the shape of a giant lion, easily the size of any of their Voltron lions, but looking less mechanical, more lifelike. The lion crouches back on its haunches slightly, and a tense silence spreads over all of them, as both girl and lion wait, while the creature rises again. Once it is standing, the monster lets out a war cry, charging up its chest laser. They watch in anticipation, unable to even move as they wait for something to happen.

Then abruptly, Lee lets out a scream of anger, throwing her hands forward. An accompanying rumble from the balmera echoes out, before both are drowned out as the massive white lion charges forward, letting out an ear-splitting roar. The lion races forward, ramming straight into the monster, and knocking it backwards, sending its blast up into the sky. As it stumbles back, Lee draws her hands backwards, before moving them to the side, and the lion leaps backwards, before darting around to the creature’s back. Lee lowers her hands palm down, pushing her elbows out, and the lion crouches. It pauses, as the creature begins to turn towards it, then as soon as the creature is facing the lion, Lee’s arms swing out, before rising straight in the air, then descending down in an arc, her hands curled slightly.

The lion leaps out of its crouch, pouncing at the creature, hooking its claws onto it. The creature topples backwards, slamming into the ground as the lion lands on its chest. Lee’s head moves forward slightly, and the lion lunges down, biting onto the creature’s shoulder, it tears into it. The creature cries out, quickly powering up. Lee’s hands rush straight out to the side, palms to the ground, and suddenly, the white lion seems to dissolve, white energy flowing to the sides as the creature’s blast harmlessly passes through the space the lion just inhabited. Once the blast ends, Lee reverses her last action, bringing her arms back in straight, keeping her palms flat, and the energy reforms into the lion, snarling atop the creature.

Lee jerks her hands to the side as the creature sits up, and the lion leaps off. Suddenly they all hear a rumble, recognizing the sound of the balmera, and they can see Lee nod up on the crystal. Throwing her right arm out, Lee’s hand curves, like claws, before she whips it forward with a cry of rage. The white lion echoes her, a ferocious snarl escaping it, as it slashes at the creature. Its claws dig deep furrows through the creature’s chest armour, and as the creature falls, crystal rises up, encasing it, with the balmera giving its own sort of roar.

The observers can only gawk, as the creature which even Voltron, the greatest, strongest weapon in the universe couldn’t defeat, is beat by one girl, and the balmera. As they watch, the white lion suddenly shatters, energy dissipating, and their attention is drawn to Lee, who still stands on the crystal. The balmera cries, and even before he has realized what is happening, Keith begins racing towards where Lee sways atop the crystal. 

As he runs as fast as he can, the balmera tries to help, slowly moving the crystal lower, and closer to Keith, but it can’t move too much or Lee will fall. He gets close, then sees Lee begin tipping backwards off the crystal, and he pushes himself. Stretching his arms out, he just manages to catch Lee. He lowers the two of them down, cradling her on his lap. He reaches one hand up, ripping off his helmet. He throws it to the side, frantically looking her over, until he sees that her chest is rising and falling, and he lets out a deep sigh of relief. He moves his arms, jostling her a little bit, in hopes that she will move, or open her eyes, or do something, other than just lay in his arms, silent. 

The other paladins, Allura, and Coran all race up, stopping a little ways away. But Keith doesn’t notice them, as he is transfixed on Lee’s face, her silent, unmoving body in his arms. He is reminded of how he held her after the last creature attacked them on Arus, how still she looked inside the healing pod, and how he had never wanted to see her like that again.

“Lee? Lee, can you hear me? You’re kind of freaking us out, and we just wanna know that you’re okay.” He says, urging her to give them some sort of sign, some sort of response so that they know, so that he knows she is okay. Still getting nothing, Keith reaches out with one hand, gently cradling the side of her face, he tilts her to face him. He leans in, placing his forehead to hers, his own eyes sliding closed. “Lee please. I don’t know what just happened, what you just did, but it was incredible. You were amazing, and I have no idea how you were able to do all that. So, how about you open your eyes, and tell me. All of us want to hear what I’m sure is some incredible story, so don’t leave us hanging.”

Still receiving no response, and no reaction, Keith begins to break down. The others can see how his shoulders begin to shake, and he hunches down further over Lee’s body, getting closer to her. Keith begins speaking again, his voice cracking, as he pleads with the silent girl on his lap.

“Lee, please, I know you’re probably tired. And you deserve more than anyone to sleep for hours, or even days if you want. But just, not yet okay? So far today, you’ve secretly snuck down into the balmera to help us and got trapped with us, and you were with me inside my lion as we got shot at by that creature, and I thought that if I left you down there, you’d be safer than if you were flying around with me, but I really should’ve known better when it comes to you.” Keith pauses, and lets out a wet sounding chuckle. “And so you decide to literally go to the most dangerous place, the center of the crumbling balmera, risking your life to try and save people, and I wish I could be angry, and actually I am angry, but if you wake up I’ll call it even. And then you are fighting off this creature, and I swear you’re trying to kill me, Lee seriously, I’m going to go gray before I’m 20 because of you.”

“And after all of that, you just pass out, giving me another heart attack, because after all, what’s one more when I’ve already had about 5 today thanks to you, right? But now, now you won’t wake up, and I’m worried, Lee. No I’m scared, and I just- I just want you to come back, please. Just, wake up from whatever this is, open your eyes, and laugh at me for being so worried because I don’t know what’s going on, but I just need you to look at me, Lee, please.”

Having expelled all his worries, feelings, and emotions in a slew of words, Keith shakily takes in a breath, holding it as he hopes desperately to hear her, or feel her move, but too afraid to open his own eyes and see hers still closed. 

Behind him, the gathered paladins all have grave looks on their faces, and Allura’s hand moves to cover her mouth as she lets out a soft, ‘no’, because after all that, Lee remains lying still on the ground.

Then, suddenly, Lee’s hands clench into the front of his suit, and Keith’s eyes shoot open, meeting hers. It takes him a few moments, the pure relief freezing him in place as he stares at Lee’s open eyes. Then, as it registers in his mind what he is seeing, he lunges forward, his arms around her pulling her up, crushing her to him, as he presses his face in the side of her neck, able to hear her heart beat in his ear. He shakily breathes in and out, his breath puffing against her skin. Lee can feel a few drips of wetness, but doesn’t mention it, as she doesn’t want to embarrass Keith, and she isn’t ready for this hug to end. She wraps her own arms around his back, hands grasping onto his shoulders.

The rest of the group breathe a simultaneous sigh of relief, as they see Lee awake and moving. Reassured that she will be alright, Shiro guides the rest of them away, in order to give the two a bit of privacy. He can’t help the glances he takes over his shoulders though, as he looks to see if Keith will finally seal the deal or not.

He is disappointed to see that after embracing for a few minutes longer, all that happens is that they stand up, Keith helping to support Lee’s weight as she is too weak to walk on her own. As they move closer to the castle, Shiro can see her knees tremble, and Keith must notice as well, as he suddenly swings her into his arms, and carries her the rest of the way. Shiro sees how Lee snuggles her face into Keith’s chest, and the fond look Keith gives to the top of her head, and he sighs, shaking his head.

He swears to himself that if those two couldn’t get themselves figured out on their own, soon, he was going to go to Allura and help her set them up, because seriously, their obliviousness was getting ridiculous now.


	10. Episode 9

The paladins and Lee are all gathered around in the detainment room, watching as Coran fiddles around with Sendak’s pod. Pidge swiftly becomes interested in what is happening, and how it works, and so begins flitting around Coran, questioning him. 

“When I go, I want all the stuff in my brain stored in a giant ship.” Lance speaks, which draws Keith’s attention.

“The amount of information in your brain could be stored in a paper airplane.” Keith drawls, and from beside him, Lee claps a hand over her mouth to stifle the laugh that threatens to escape. Lance immediately turns towards Keith, ready to begin another argument.

“Oh yeah? Well the amount of information you have Keith, could be…” He trails off, leading Keith to prompt him.

“Yeah?” He asks, arms sitting across his chest, and looking thoroughly uninterested by Lance’s attempts at a comeback.

“Uh, it’s less than what I have!” Lance exclaims, crossing his arms over his chest, self-satisfied.

“Oh, good one Lance!” Hunk cheers in the background, while Keith slides an unimpressed look to the side, meeting Lee’s face, who grins and rolls her eyes, still laughing. 

Their attention turns back to the pod in front of them, as Pidge continues to ask questions. Lee reluctantly shifts her focus from the barely there argument to the thing that she had been pointedly trying not to think about. The whole idea creeped her out, from the artificial memory system itself, to the plan to use that in an untested, untried way on an enemy of theirs in order to get information. Lee wasn’t quite sure exactly what it was about the Alteans way of storing memories artificially that creeped her out, but she supposed at least part of it was that although it may have the memories, and even some type of simulated emotions, it would never truly be alive, even if it acted like it. The artificial memory was like a ghost, it would never be able to replace a person, but would be just enough to stop someone from ever moving on.

Uncomfortable as she was, she stood on the outside of the group, the furthest she could get from the pod while not actively looking like she was trying to avoid something. She put Keith beside her, not in the least way embarrassed to admit to herself that she was using him as a shield of sorts, putting him between her and the pod; she was sure he wouldn’t mind.

With nothing really happening, and no one sure what’s supposed to be happening anyway, they all just stand around waiting. Eventually, Keith stretches, pushing off from where he had been leaning against the pod opposite.

“Well, I can’t wait around anymore. I’m gonna hit the training deck.” He announces, halfway turning to leave before he pauses. “Lee, coming with?”

“Please.” She says, and Keith can visibly see the relief on her face as she scurries over to him, the two of them leaving without another word. The others exchange glances as they walk away, grins on their faces.

 

“So, do you wanna spar?” Lee asks, as the two enter the training deck. She walks to the middle, spinning round to face Keith when he doesn’t answer.

“You’re kidding right?” He asks, a flat look on his face. Lee raises an eyebrow at him, slightly offended.

“What is that supposed to mean?” She questions back, and Keith’s eyes widen slightly as he realizes how it might’ve been perceived, but he continues on, because he needs to say this, foot in his mouth or not.

“It means that you should be resting just as much, or more than Allura is, after what happened on the balmera. You probably shouldn’t even be up and walking around right now, let alone sparring.” Keith says, and Lee sighs exaggeratedly.

“Come on Keith, I feel fine.” She says grinning. It quickly drops as soon she sees his expression.

“Maybe. And maybe you are completely fine. But Lee, I experienced the most terrifying moment of my life on that balmera. And it wasn’t when we were trapped in the core while it was crumbling, or when we were fighting that monster, or even when we were all standing there helpless as it got back up. It was when I saw you swaying on that crystal, when I was running trying to catch you, and afraid I wouldn’t make it, and most of all it was when you were laying there, alive, but quiet. When I was begging for you to just open your eyes, so I would know you’re okay, and there was no response. So, no, Lee, I don’t want to spar with you.” She can see all the emotions laid bare before her, his face open. There is a glimmer to his eyes, and she sucks in a sharp breath. The two stand there staring at each other, until Lee slowly releases her breath.

“Okay.” She says, and Keith’s brows furrow.

“What?” He asks, unable to believe she would agree so easily.

“I’ll sit out this one, but that means I get a rain check for some time. Give me your jacket.” She says, hand outstretched. Keith just looks at her, completely lost. “You’re not going to wear it while you’re training right?”

Keith shrugs out of his jacket, passing it to Lee. She folds it over her arm, before moving to the side of the training deck, and taking a seat. Keith stares at her a few moments longer, then pulls his bayard and instructs the computer to begin.

Lee watches as Keith decimates the first two training levels. He takes out the level two bot, pausing a moment to wipe sweat from his brow.

“You just going to keep going until you lose?” Lee calls out, and Keith doesn’t even look at her, as he readies his stance again.

“I don’t plan on losing. Start training level 3.” Keith instructs, and Lee shakes her head. Propping it on one hand, she continues to observe Keith. She is extremely impressed by his skills, and then, with a swipe, the bot sends him flying.

“Hey, how’s that plan work out for you?” Lee teases, as Keith rolls across the floor, and back into a standing position. 

“End training sequence.” He pants, and Lee grins, fully prepared to tear into him. But the bot keeps coming towards Keith, and the grin drops of her face. “End training sequence. End training sequence now!”

The bot charges at Keith, sword raised, and Lee shoots to her feet, Keith’s jacket falling to the floor. Keith gets his sword up to block its strike, and it sends his bayard flying away from him.

“Keith!” Lee cries, as the bot kicks Keith, and he goes rolling across the floor. She swiftly touches her pendant, and grabs her baton. As the robot is approaching Keith’s prone form, she quickly snaps her wrist, wrapping her whip around it. She pulls hard, forcing it to a stop, which gives Keith a chance to run for his bayard. 

“Let’s go!” He yells, and she yanks again, sending the robot off balance, before racing off after Keith, grabbing his jacket on her way by. He grabs her hand, pulling her along behind him as they race towards the exit. As they shoot out through the doors, Keith slams his hand on the control panel beside the door, closing it after them.

The sudden stop puts Lee off balance, and she trips, falling to the floor. Her tight grip on Keith’s hand pulls him down after her. He lands sprawled on her, before lifting himself slightly, arms on either side of her head. The two lay there, only inches between them as they gasp for air, adrenaline rushing through them. Their eyes meet, and they gaze at each other, before Keith begins leaning down, Lee slowly rising to meet him. There is barely an inch of space between them, when suddenly the bot’s blade is thrust through the doors, twisting to open them a crack.

Keith pushes himself to his feet, drawing his bayard. Lee scrambles up as well, and pulls her baton, moving to stand beside him, they exchange fearful glances.

The two battle the bot across the ship, working together to be sure neither of them gets their head taken off by the murder happy machine. The bot smacks Lee, sending her flying back into the wall behind her. She slumps to the floor, and it turns towards Keith. Worried about Lee, but unable to pause for a second now that he has the bot’s full attention, Keith desperately defends himself. They clash blades, until the bot kicks Keith, and he is knocked backwards.

He falls to the ground, before quickly standing up again, and then he hears a voice behind him yelling his name.

“What are you doing in there?” He asks, recognizing Lance’s voice, turning to see said paladin. He points forwards, and Keith ducks just in time to miss his head being separated from his body. He dodges to the side, vaguely hearing as Lance screams about the air lock opening, and being sucked into space. He tries to figure out what exactly he can do, how he can beat the robot and save Lance, when he sees movement behind it.

“Keith, now!” Lee cries, jabbing the open button on the air lock. It flies open, and Keith strikes at the bot, forcing it backwards, until with one final kick, it’s sent straight through the open doors, being sucked out into space. He leaps to the side, Lee grabbing him and pulling him over to safety. Lance screams, still desperately hanging onto the side of the airlock as it attempts to pull him out into space. Lee and Keith quickly reach out, each taking hold of one of his arms, they pull him to safety, Lee elbowing the panel to slam the airlock closed.

The three slide down the wall to sit on the floor, struggling to catch their breaths, and slow their heartbeats. Lee slumps sideways, laying her head on Keith’s shoulder. She feels his head rest against hers for a moment, before he is turning to face Lance.

“What were you doing out there?” He exclaims, and Lance turns to face him as well.

“Who was that guy?” He asks hysterically.

“He was trying to kill us!” Keith cries, and Lee lifts her head from his shoulder, bad feeling in her gut.

“Well is he the castle, because that’s who’s trying to kill me!” Lance tells them, and the boys stare at each a moment longer before both are jumping to their feet. Keith yanks Lee up as well, and they all race off, completely terrified.

They all happen to run into Coran, the four of them heading out to find the rest of the paladins. They head to one of the hangers, where they know Pidge and Hunk have been working on some sort of project. As the doors open, they see Pidge and Hunk sprawled on the floor.

As the paladins all compare their run-ins with the castle, Lee’s attention is drawn by something off in the corner of the room. It looks large, and there is a tarp covering it. It looks like the tarp has fallen somewhat, and she can see a peek of whatever’s underneath, but can’t tell what it is. She tunes back into the conversation when Coran begins explaining what’s happening with the castle. As soon as Keith mentions Shiro’s name, the bad feeling that had been churning in Lee’s gut explodes into a stabbing intensity, and with grim realization she looks to Keith, the two making eye contact before turning to race down to the detainment room.

They all enter the detainment room to find Shiro slouched over and holding his head. They race over to him, gathering around him.

“Shiro, are you okay?” Pidge asks.

“Where’s Sendak?” Keith questions, as they all notice the empty pod where their prisoner once was.

“I-I had to get him out of here. I-I was hearing his voice. He-he can’t be trusted on this ship.” Shiro says, and they can all see how rattled he is. Lee looks over to Keith, the both of them concerned for their leader.

“It is the ship!” Lance exclaims. “I get stuck in a cryo pod, then an airlock, Keith and Lee got attacked by a robot, and Hunk and Pidge got attacked by food! It’s been a weird morning.”

Suddenly, a screen pops up behind them, flashing red as an alarm sounds. Coran informs them that the ship is starting a wormhole jump. They race to the control room, and when they get there, they see Allura at the controls. She says that her father is taking them all home to Altea, and when the paladins try to get close, his image appears on the screens warning them to stay away. A force field is between them and Allura, and Coran says that crystal must have corrupted the artificial intelligence.

They exit the wormhole to see a star about to explode directly in front of them. Coran tries to get through to Allura, but she doesn’t react. Then, Lee steps forward, placing her hands against the force field.

“Allura. Allura please, listen.” She calls, and Allura turns to her.

“Oh, Lee, isn’t it wonderful! We’re going home!” She says, bright smile on her face. “My father is taking us to Altea!”

“But Allura, Altea is gone.” Lee says gently, hoping to wake Allura up with a dose of reality. The princess frowns, shaking her head.

“No, it can’t be, because my father is taking us there. Don’t you miss Altea?” Allura questions, and Lee swallows hard, pressing her forehead to the force field.

“Of course. I miss Altea every day. But even if it were still there, what would we be going back to? It’d be an empty planet.” Lee plays along slightly, and sees Allura’s eyebrows furrow.

“It would be home.” She says, and Lee shakes her head.

“No, Allura, it wouldn’t. Home isn’t about a place, it’s about the people. Your family, your friends, the people you love, and care about, and who love and care for you in return.” She stares through the force field at Allura, seeing she is starting to get through to her. “We don’t need Altea, Allura. We’re home, right here.”

Allura blinks at her, becoming aware of reality once again. She spins to face the front of the ship, finally realizing that they are not headed for Altea. When she moves to try and pilot them out of there, the hologram shocks her before knocking her out of the force field. Lee catches her, and immediately Allura is pressing her hands to the force field, in the exact pose Lee had just occupied moments before. She begs her father to stop, to turn the ship around, or they will die.

The hologram begins glitching as it explains that it want to kill them all, and Lee can only watch in a sort of horrified fascination, as the thing in front of them talked. The King would never say such things, and that was exactly why she was so wary of the holographic memories. Then, it seems as if the true King gets through for a minute instructing Allura to unplug his power source, as his AI was corrupted.

As Allura races off to the AI chamber, the paladins head for their lions, and Coran moves to try and get the hanger doors open for them. Lee feels lost, not sure where she should go. She is confused, conflicted, and has no idea what to do. Lee closes her eyes, putting her hands over her face, she cries into her mind: 

_‘What do I do?!’_

Suddenly, it’s like she gets sucked into her mind-scape, within her consciousness, like when she meditates. She can feel the lions growing steadily closer, feeling herself calm slightly at their presence. She knows they feel the conflict within her, and as they gather around her in a circle, she drops to her knees.

_‘I don’t know what to do. I-I need to save everyone, but I don’t want Allura to have to give up her father’s memories. Please, what should I do?’_

The lions look to each other, before the Black Lion leans down closer to her. It speaks with a voice that is old and deep, but comforting, like seeing the stars in the sky every night. 

_‘Do what feels right, child. There is a reason your instincts speak loudly within you. Follow them, and know that we are always with you.’_

She gazes up at the lions, looking at each of their faces, until lastly, she gazes at the Red Lion. She feels a brush of warmth, and if robotic lions could smile, Red would be. She closes her eyes, taking a deep breath, and when she opens them she sees the control room again. 

With hardly a second having past while she was lost in her own mind, Lee immediately drops to the ground, crossing her legs. She sinks quickly into a meditative state, feeling a rumble of approval from the edge of her awareness, where the lions are. She reaches out with her mind, searching for a specific consciousness. She works quickly, locking onto the specific signature once she’s found it. It is tangled, the corruption entwined within it, until she almost cannot tell the difference between them. Almost, because while the mass of memories and AI isn’t alive, as she has known, there is life within it that she never would have expected, life that isn’t shared with the dark corruption.

She unweaves the two, gently guiding the King’s consciousness away from the evil, prising its grip from him until she has completely separated the two. Once she’s done that, she gathers the corruption she had just removed, guiding it away, she locks it into a separate pod, one that is disconnected from the castle so that it can’t influence anything again. 

Then, she prods the King’s consciousness, spurring him into action. Slowly drawing herself out of her meditation, she takes a deep breath, before opening up her eyes.

She sees that the force field, and the evil hologram is gone, but she doesn’t know whether that means she was in time, or if Allura had to destroy her father’s memories. Allura races back into the control room, immediately heading to the controls. She instructs the paladins to come back on board so they can get out of there. They park the lions, and Allura opens a wormhole, the ship going through it just as the star explodes behind them.

As the paladins race into the control room, Lee slowly stands up, afraid to ask Allura what had happened, afraid she may have let her best friend down. She approaches Allura hesitantly, pausing beside her.

“Allura? Did I…? I mean, did you…? I-…” She stammers out, swallowing the rest of her words as Allura spins to face her. There are tears in the other girl’s eyes, and Lee’s heart sinks, but then Allura throws her arms around Lee, pulling her into a hug.

“Oh Lee!” She cries, and the paladins all shuffle awkwardly, not sure what is happening, or what has happened. Coran too, is similarly confused. Lee, unsure whether Allura is happy or sad, strengthens her resolve, deciding to ask outright.

“Allura, did I-…?” This time, Allura cuts her off, pulling back slightly to show her the immense smile on her face. 

“You saved my father’s memories, Lee. I cannot thank you enough.” She says, and Lee smiles in return, pulling Allura back into the hug. The girls cling to each other, as tears fall down both their faces. Tears of happiness, of loss, of hope, of pain, and of love.

“Come on Allura,” Lee begins, moving to smile over the princess’s shoulder at where the rest of their rag tag group stands. “What is family for?”

 

That night, someone knocks on Keith’s door. Lee is standing there grinning at him, holding her arms behind her back. Keith raises an eyebrow at her, and she whips her arms out from behind her back, revealing his red jacket clutched in her hands.

“Look what I tracked down!” She exclaims, and Keith grins, reaching out to take it from her.

“Where did you find it?” Keith asks, stepping back to let her into his room, as he moves to lay his jacket on the foot of his bed, deciding not to put it on at the moment.

“Well, I was holding it in the training room, and I grabbed it when we ran out of there. But when the robot was attacking us, I dropped it somewhere in the castle. I’ve been looking for it, searching the castle because I couldn’t remember exactly where I’d dropped, being kind of more focused on not getting killed by the robot. But, I finally found it!” Keith laughs, shaking his head at her.

“You didn’t have to go searching the castle for it.” He says, and she shrugs, biting her lip.

“Well, I mean I dropped it, so I went and found it. I was really tempted to just keep it once I found it, but I brought it back.” Lee explains, and Keith’s brows furrow slightly as he looks over at her. He sees that there is a faint blush on her cheeks, and he is confused.

“Why would you want to keep it?” He asks her, and the blush intensifies as she avoids his eyes.

“Uhm, well- I just wanted to copy your fantastic fashion sense, of course.” She says, and without giving him the time to process that she turns towards the door. “Well I better get going, get to bed, after all sleep is important, rest and all that. So, yeah. Goodnight!”

“Goodnight.” Keith replies, not able to hold back his amusement. He’s not sure what exactly all that was about, but he can’t stop the fond smile that stretches across his face as he looks at his jacket. Nor can he stop the amused chuckle that escapes as he imagines Lee scouring the halls of the castle for his jacket, and the flustered way she left, blush dusting her cheeks. He bites his lip as a warm feeling wells in his chest, turning to begin getting ready for bed as well.


	11. Episode 10

“So, where is it?” Lance asks as they look at the screen, which shows three planets, but no sort of universal station/space base.

“I don’t know. Our long range sensors are unable to find anything at those coordinates.” Coran replies.

“Maybe he remembered it wrong.” Keith suggests.

“Or maybe we just stumbled across a top secret base in Sendak’s memories.” Pidge proposes, and they all consider the possibilities.

“There’s something there. Without a doubt.” Lee says, and they turn to look at her, seeing a grave seriousness on her face.

“Only one way to find out. Let’s go take a look.” Allura says, and with that, the ship shoots off into space, to find out what’s hiding at those mystery coordinates.

 

The paladins, Allura, and Lee all board the Green Lion, swiftly sneaking into the central control of the Galra station. They hide inside while they’re waiting on Pidge’s download, having to duck under control panels when a Galra ship docks, and opens up a hologram screen inside the room. Luckily, Hunk’s quick thinking saves them, and they all breathe a sigh of relief when the screen disappears.

As Allura and Shiro prepare to sneak onto the Galran ship that just arrived, Lee approaches Allura, who is still in her Galran form.

“You know, I forgot you could do that.” She says, and Allura turns to her with a grin.

“I don’t know how you could; when we were children you used to beg me to change shapes over and over again.” Allura says teasingly, and Lee chuckles, giving her a half shrug.

“Yeah, well that’s cause it’s cool! It was then, and it still is.” She defends, and the two girls fall into a comfortable silence, each remembering childish adventures. Slowly they are brought back to the serious mood at present, their silence turning solemn. “Allura please be careful.”

“I will. You must as well.” Allura replies, and the girls hug each other tightly, before pulling away. They exchange looks, promises of strength, power, and protection, and of regret to all those who may stand in their way. With one last nod, Allura turns, and she and Shiro head out. Lee is left watching them from a window in the central control room. She, Keith, Hunk and Lance all watch anxiously, breathing a sigh of relief when they make it on the ship.

Then they see Galran soldiers bringing huge containers full of something yellow, and shining. Lee feels a tingling in the back of her mind as she looks at it, feeling like its familiar in some way, like she should know what it is, but she can’t remember. She struggles to try and figure out what the mysterious substance could be, when suddenly Keith draws her attention to a hooded figure.

Lee gasps, grasping onto Keith’s sleeve as a terrible feeling rushes through her. She feels a chill down her spine, and a sinking in her gut, because she recognizes who the figure in the hood is, or rather, what it is. Keith turns to her, seeing that her face has paled to an ashy white, and her hand trembles where it grips his sleeve.

“Lee, what-?” He asks, immensely concerned as he stares down at her. She gulps without breaking her focused stare, and he follows her gaze to see she is looking at the hooded figure.

“It’s a Druid. They’re evil, dark creatures, who do terrible things, and use black magic. They’re the complete opposite of my people, and cause chaos and destruction everywhere they go. Before, it was said that they conducted horrifying experiments and rituals that defied nature.” Her voice shakes as she tells them this, and they can hear her fear. But then, her grip tightens on Keith’s sleeve, as she pulls herself together, resolve replacing the fear. “If one of them is here, then there’s something else going on.”

“I’m gonna go check it out.” Keith says, looking to Lee. He has an eyebrow raised, a clear question on his face. She knows that he is asking if she wants to come along; knows that whatever she chooses, he will understand. She takes another look out at the figure, the bad feeling intensifying, and stands up with him.

“I’m coming with you.” She says, holding his gaze.

“You don’t have to.” He assures, but she smiles grimly.

“I’m not letting you go up against a Druid by yourself.” She says, and Keith nods, the two of them turn to head out of the central control room.

“How about we just lay low and you don’t blow our cover.” Lance suggests. Keith just keeps moving, but Lee pauses turning to face the blue paladin.

“Trust me Lance, if a Druid is doing something here, we want to know what it is.” She says, and after a minute Lance nods, backing down. Lee and Keith exit the room, following behind where the Druid and 4 containers of the mystery substance go. The convoy moves into the station, and the massive doors begin closing behind them. Keith sweeps Lee up into his arms, his thrusters starting, flying them down, and just narrowly making it through the closing door.

They step over broken bodies of Galran soldiers, sticking close to the wall as they creep further inside. They eventually reach a wide room, full of containers, all filled with the mysterious substance. As they watch, one of the containers is drained, the Druid doing something to it; it then flows into another container, now purple. A gasp escapes Lee, and Keith looks over his shoulder at her.

“I know what they’re doing.” She whispers, and Keith can guess it must be something pretty terrible, because Lee looks simultaneously afraid, enraged, and disgusted. “Show the others.”

Keith transmits what they are seeing live to the others. Coran says he’s never seen anything like it, while Pidge asks what the substance is. The Galran robot the paladins had been trying to hack answers them, saying it is Quintessence. Lee closes her eyes, her fears confirmed. She opens them as Keith speaks again, nodding in agreement as he mentions stealing some of it. 

They hide to either side of the passage, and as one of the containers of the now purple Galran fuel comes rolling past them, Keith leaps across, grabbing the container and tucking himself back against the wall beside Lee. The Druid suddenly stops what it’s doing, and as Keith peeks out into the cavernous room, Lee feels her bad feeling ringing sharply. 

“Down!” She shrieks, tackling Keith as the Druid suddenly appears behind them. Its energy blast shoots over their head, and the two quickly roll to their feet. Keith had dropped the container as they fell, and the Druid picks it up, Keith drawing his sword, and Lee forming her baton. The Druid calmly places the container on a passing cart, as Keith rushes it. Lee hangs back, watching as it teleports away from him. When she sees how quickly it moves, she realizes that trying to fight it hand to hand would be pointless.

“Keith, wait!” She calls, worried about the paladin. The Druids are powerful, and with how fast this one is, she is afraid for Keith, as despite his exceptional abilities, the Druid wields dark and deadly magic. It teleports onto the platform above them, shooting down at Keith with a blast of purple magic. Lee rushes towards him, as the paladin runs from the blast, disappearing from view in a cloud of smoke. When it clears, she doesn’t see him, and is relieved as that hopefully means he didn’t get hit. The relief only lasts a moment, as he flies at the Druid, slashing at it with his sword.

The Druid blocks his swing, before blasting him with magic. Keith is sent flying, crashing into one of the containers on the top row. 

“Keith!” Lee screams, and the Druid turns its head to face her. As she looks at it, it almost seems like the Druid smiles, and Lee feels a rage unlike any other surge with her. With a wordless cry of rage, her white lion forms above her, instantly leaping at the Druid. It teleports out of the way, but the lion keeps moving forwards, until it crouches in front of Keith. 

A threatening growl rumbles from its chest, as the Druid flashes back onto the platform. 

It tilts its head as it regards the lion, before shooting a blast of energy at it. The lion stays still, the blast exploding over its flank as it shields Keith. It snarls angrily, and the Druid turns to look at the girl who summoned it, but she is nowhere to be seen.

Lee moves quickly, knowing she doesn’t have much time. The Druid may be distracted for now, but she knows it won’t be long before it turns its attention on her, and while her concentration and magic is focused on keeping her lion in place and protecting Keith, she is vulnerable. She calls her disk, hopping on it and swiftly flying up. She sees the Druid turn to look at her, and flies faster, heading for Keith and her lion. The Druid spots her, and begins firing, and she ducks and weaves, dodging its blasts. She is getting close to her lion, when one of its blasts manages to nick her, sending her and her disk flying. 

She hits the floor hard, rolling to a stop a few feet from Keith. Her lion flickers as her concentration wavers, and the Druid takes advantage, firing at them again. Keith dashes towards her as she stands up, grabbing her around the waist, he hoists her half over his shoulder. He kicks off the ground, thrusters firing up as they zoom into the air. Over his shoulder, Lee reaches out, snapping her lion back into form. It slashes at the Druid, making it stop firing and teleport. Lee uses this brief moment to summon her disk back to her, feeling it attach once more to her necklace. Despite their dire situation, she feels relieved at having it back.

Lee and Keith both know that they just have to stall for time long enough for the other paladins to get there, Keith having called Pidge for an extraction while behind the protection of the lion. The two work together, Keith flying them around and dodging the blasts, and Lee maneuvering her lion around to protect their back, covering them and attacking the Druid. The Druid teleports, disappearing from their view, but this time doesn’t reappear.

“Keith, it’s gone! I can’t see it!” Lee tells Keith, and he flies them up onto the central platform, letting Lee slide off from his shoulder, the two stand back to back, watching for the Druid. Lee’s white lion disappears as they wait, no longer beneficial as a shield considering they don’t where the Druid will reappear. 

Anticipation builds as they look around, both tense, and knowing that it isn’t finished. It pops back in front of them, prepared to fire. The two of them move to defend themselves, but the Druid is faster, already building its energy. 

The Green Lion burst through the ceiling, shaking the entire room. The Druid is knocked off balance just as it is firing, sending its blast wide. Keith grabs Lee, pulling her back to his chest, he shields her with his body. The blast misses them, shattering the container behind them. The substance inside splashes everywhere, with Keith receiving the brunt of it. The Green Lion drops to the ground, mouth opening.

“Get in! We have to get Shiro and Allura!” Pidge cries. Keith pauses, looking back towards where the Druid disappeared. Lee grabs his hand, pulling him into the lion’s mouth. It closes behind them, the lion rising into the air. Lee keeps hold of Keith’s hand, pulling it up closer to her so she can look at his burn. But as the two of them look at it, it heals before their eyes, becoming smooth skin once again.

“What the-…?” He asks, and Lee looks up to him.

“It’s the Quintessence. It healed you. It’s basically pure energy of the universe in a concentrated, physical form. It’s incredibly powerful, and really hard to come by; I have no idea how they’re getting so much of it.” Lee rambles, and Keith can tell that something is bothering her, because while she is looking at him, she won’t meet his eyes.

“What’s wrong?” He asks gently, and she freezes for a moment, which tells him that there is indeed something wrong. He can see as she moves to shakes her head; to deny that anything was wrong. But he doesn’t want that, he wants her to tell him, wants to know what it is that’s troubling her. So, he removes his hand from her grasp, reaching up to gently take hold of her face, and forces her to meet his eyes. 

As he watches, she bites her lip as tears start to form in her eyes. She closes them, drawing in a shuddery breath. As she opens them again, a few slip down her cheeks, and Keith wonders at what could have got her so upset.

“You almost died.” She says, voice cracking, and Keith is taken aback as he didn’t expect her to have such a strong reaction to what was really just a minor injury. 

“It was just my hand.” He says, laughing slightly, but he stops as she gives him a fierce look. 

“It could’ve been a lot worse. I mean, what- what if I wasn’t there, what if my lion couldn’t shield you from that blast, what if – what if you were a second slower in dodging?” Lee asks, and Keith pauses to figure out his response, seeing how serious and upset Lee is.

“But none of that happened. Both of us are standing here, and we’re both okay. And,” He keeps speaking quickly, seeing she wanted to interrupt him, but needing to say his whole piece first. “You know why we got out? Because we were there together. We worked together, and we protected each other. And so as long as we keep doing that, as long as I know you have my back, and you know that I will do whatever I can to make sure you never get hurt, then I’m not worried. The Galra, Druids, Zarkon, I’m not worried about any of them, because none of them stand a chance if we’re together.”

The two of them stand there, Lee’s tears having dried up during Keith’s speech. As they look into each other’s eyes, they let down every guard they have, openly allowing their emotions to show on their face. Seeing the same feelings reflected on the other, they both start leaning in. Eyes drifting closed, Keith’s hand cups her cheek, his other one wrapping around her waist. Lee’s arms go around his neck, and her breath catches in her throat as she feels his puff over her face. She leans up, as he leans down, and they meet in the middle, lips tenderly pressing against each other’s. Their kiss is gentle, soft, and they break apart a few moments later, resting their foreheads together.

“Promise me.” Lee murmurs, voice quiet to match the atmosphere. “You told me I wasn’t alone. Told me you would always be there for me, and I trust you, but I want a promise. I want you to promise me that no matter what happens, we stay together.”

Keith opens his eyes, only to see that Lee is already looking at him. He shows her the seriousness, the conviction he feels as he tell her: “I promise.”

The two of them head up to the cockpit of the lion, joining the others just as they spot the escape pod. Pidge pilots them to go and pick it up, while Lance turns to the two of them.

“Hey, what took you guys so long to get up here?” He asks, and a faint blush spreads across both of their cheeks as they glance at each other. Before they can come up with an answer, the escape pod docks with the Green Lion, and everyone waits as the doors to the cockpit finally whoosh open, revealing Shiro.

“Where’s Allura?” Keith asks him, as they all gaze wide eyed at their leader, futilely searching the empty space behind him for the princess that’s not there. Shiro slumps over the back of Pidge’s chair, and Lee feels a numbing fear set in as he stays silent.

“Shiro?” Lance asks, and Lee stares at the black paladin her heart hammering in her chest.

“She sacrificed herself to save me.” He says, and Lee’s racing heart suddenly stops. A high pitched ringing sound echoes in her ears, muffling the voices of the others. She doesn’t hear what they’re saying, and at the moment, she can’t even think to care, because all she can hear is that sentence repeating over and over in her head. 

Time slows, or maybe stops, she can’t be sure, but the next thing she’s aware of, there’s hands on her shoulders, the faint sound of someone calling her name. It isn’t until she feels a warmth on her forehead, and is reminded of what happened just a few minutes ago, that she finally starts to come back to herself. She hears Keith’s voice, and latches onto that, using it to anchor herself.

“Come on Lee, breathe, it’s going to be okay. I’m here, I’m here, you’re gonna be fine, just take some deep breaths.” Keith speaks to her quietly, the rest of the paladins mercifully silent now, and Lee follows his instruction, taking in a deep breath, and then another. After a few more, she opens her eyes, seeing Keith just a few inches away from her. His worried face smooths out as he sees her open her eyes. “You really have to stop worrying me like that.”

“I’m sorry.” She says, her eyebrows furrowing. “I’m-I’m not sure what happened.”

“You just, spaced out, and you were breathing really fast, like, gasping for air.” Keith says.

“It was a panic attack.” The two break apart as Shiro speaks up, Keith moving to stand beside Lee, taking hold of one of her hands. “I’m guessing that it was triggered by me saying that Allura sacrificed herself for me?”

Lee’s breathe hitches as she hears him say that, but this time she stays calm, Keith’s grip on her hand helping her to not get overwhelmed.

“I’m sorry, Lee, I chose a poor way of saying that. Allura was captured by the Galra as we were trying to escape. She allowed herself to get captured so that I would be able to escape. As far as I know, she’s fine.” Shiro explains, trying to reassure her, but also stay pragmatic. They don’t know what is happening to Allura, can’t know whether or not she is still okay, but they have to believe that she is.

“So, what do we do? We have to save her.” Lee asks, looking around at the paladins. She feels a squeeze to her hand, looking over at Keith, who smiles at her reassuringly. 

“We will.” Shiro promises, and as Lee looks at him, she sees his strength and conviction, and she nods at him, reassured. As the Green Lion flies off back to the castle, Lee looks around the cockpit, taking a moment to study each of the paladins. They’ve come a long way from the rag tag group of confused and awed humans she first met; but, she supposes she’s grown, and changed quite a bit since meeting them as well. She looks down to where Keith’s hand holds hers, and she thinks back to all that their group has done, all that they’ve accomplished together.

_‘Zarkon messed with the wrong family. He better watch out, because we’re coming for him.’_


	12. Episode 11

“Maybe we shouldn’t go on this mission at all. Think about it: we’ll be delivering the universe’s only hope to the universe’s biggest enemy.” Keith says, and Lee bites her lip. She has no idea what to do, because on one side, it’s Allura, and they’ve known each other since they were children, and there is no way she can just abandon her. On the other side, all the rest of the people she cares about are in this room, and talking about potentially risking all their lives, as well as the chance that Zarkon could get his hands on one of the lions, putting the rest of the universe at risk.

“Keith that’s cold even for you. What if it was one of us? What if it was me? You wouldn’t leave me, would you? Would you?” Hunk questions Keith, and Lee holds her breath waiting for Keith’s answer.

“I’m not saying I like the idea. I’m just thinking like a paladin.” He says, and Lee understands a bit better now, can see that Keith is trying to think about this objectively. She can’t help but wonder though, what his reaction would be if it were her captured. 

“No, you’re thinking about yourself, because you’re too scared to do what’s right!” Lance exclaims, and Lee can practically feel the tension rising in the room.

“Okay, we’re all upset because we lost Allura.” Pidge says, trying to calm down the brewing storm, but gets off by Coran.

“No, Shiro lost Allura!” The man blames, and Lee can’t take it anymore.

“Enough! Coran, you know Allura, and you know what happened. Sacrificing herself to save someone she cares about is just like something she would do. And we both know that there’s nothing Shiro could have done to stop an Allura who had already made up her mind. You’re upset, but stop blaming Shiro, because it wasn’t his fault.” She admonishes, and Coran looks down, guilty. 

“Standing around and bickering like this isn’t helping anyone.” Hunk jumps in, and Lee nods, agreeing with him.

“Exactly. We all just need to take a second and calm down.” Lee says, and they all fall silent for a moment, each of them realizing they have to get control of their emotions. “Now, Keith has a point.”

Immediately after she says this, multiple voices begin to splutter and stammer in disbelief, and Lee raises a hand, waiting until they fall quiet again. 

“Hang on a minute, and let me explain.” She asks them, but Lance interrupts her, outrage clear on his face.

“You said Allura was like family! You said that we had to save her! How can you just abandon her?” He demands, and immediately regrets it as he sees the look on her face. 

“Don’t presume to know my thoughts or feelings, Lance! Allura is my best friend, practically my sister. The last thing I want to do is leave her there.” Lee says, and Lance calms a fraction hearing this, but isn’t quite ready to completely let it go.

“Then why would you say Keith is right?” He asks, and Lee too takes a moment, calming herself slightly. She doesn’t want to turn this into another argument.

“I didn’t say he was right, I said he had a point.” Lee says, before letting out a sigh. “If we look at this just by numbers, then risking the entire universe for one person is crazy. Logically, our only option is to honour her sacrifice by making sure that Voltron stays far away from Zarkon’s hands.”

She pauses a moment, letting her words sink in, and can see that however reluctantly, the others see the reason, and acknowledge the logic in what she is saying, and what Keith said.

“But, Voltron isn’t about numbers; it never has been. Voltron is about people, saving them, protecting them. If you start to consider things like acceptable casualties, or sacrificing the few to save the many, then you’ve lost sight of what it means to be Voltron.” A silence descends on them, as they all look around, waiting for someone to make a decision. Lost in thought, and with a million things running through their minds, they are all relieved as Shiro speaks up.

“Let’s focus. How are we going to get Allura?” He asks, and though they are all relieved that someone has made the decision, now the nervousness and reality of what they are going to attempt settles over them.

As they wormhole into the gas planet, Shiro outlines their plan. Scanning for Allura’s signature, they find it on Zarkon’s main ship. They decide to rush in hard and fast, grab Allura, and wormhole out as fast as possible. Although it sounds straight forward, they all know it will be nowhere near as easy as it sounds. Before the paladins leave, Keith grabs Lee’s arm, drawing he to the side.

“Lee…” He begins, looking pained, and she stops him, already knowing what he’s going to say.

“I know. You have to go, and I can’t be in the lion with you. It’s okay.” She reassures, but he shakes his head.

“No. I just promised you that we’d stay together, and now-…” She cuts him off, putting her hands on either side of his face, cradling it between her palms.

“It’s okay. I shouldn’t have made you promise that anyway. I knew that it was impossible for us to always stay together. Save Allura, stay safe, and instead, promise me that when we leave this place, we’ll be together.” Lee proposes, keeping firm hold of her emotions lest she break down again. In the back of her mind she recognizes now how Keith felt on the balmera.

“I promise. I swear, I will get the two of us out of here, safe, together, even if I have to fight off the entire Galran fleet by myself.” Keith promises, and Lee surges upwards, lips meeting his in a desperate, hurried move, which Keith returned, expressing all their shared worry, concern, and fear. 

They pull apart hearing a throat clear, and look over to see the other paladins and Coran all standing there staring at them. Lance has his mouth dropped open in shock as he wonders how Keith of all people managed to get with an alien girl before he did. Hunk and Pidge too look shocked, because they had noticed something between the two but hadn’t realized the extent. Shiro still had a serious look on his face, but there was a slight upturn to his lips, since it seemed they were able to figure it out on their own after all. And Coran looked as though he was only holding back giddy squealing by forcibly reminding himself of the situation at hand.

Keith lunges forward, capturing her lips in one last desperate, brief kiss before turning and racing out of the control room following the other paladins. They get in their lions, forming Voltron before flying off, exiting the gaseous planet and heading straight for Zarkon’s central command.

As Voltron begins destroying Galran ships, Lee and Coran are in the castle, keeping a close eye on them. When Lee sees the massive purple barrier coming down around them, her eyes widen in shock.

“Coran!” She cries, whipping around to face him. She sees him staring at a screen which shows the barrier close, completely encasing them in a full sphere.

“Yes I see it too.” He states, and Lee moves over to look at his screen, which has a close up of the barrier.

“Is it a particle barrier? Like the castle’s?” Lee asks, and Coran shakes his head, looking very worried.

“I’m afraid it’s much stronger.” He says and they look at each other, extremely concerned. As they watch Voltron take out multiple ships, it suddenly freezes when it gets close to Zarkon’s central command. Lee gasps as she feel a jolt against her mental barriers, and hears the paladins begin yelling. Lee closes her eyes, diving into her consciousness, she follows the disturbance, finding it leads to the corner of her mind where the lions stay. As she tunes in with them, she can suddenly hear Zarkon’s voice, and see flashes of him.

She cries out as she feels the lions be forced apart, feels their pain as Zarkon forces his power to break Voltron, and send the individual lions flying off in different directions. Lee can see through the lions’ eyes as an army of fighters appear. She feels that something is wrong, turning to the Black Lion who is being rather silent.

She registers Coran hovering at her side, but having seen what the lions showed her, she knows that they are going to need as much help as they can get. 

“Help the paladins.” She tells him, before moving towards the middle of the control room, getting out of Coran’s way. She lowers herself to sit cross legged on the floor, swiftly moving back in to connect to the lions. As she moves back to examine what is wrong with Black, she finds herself blocked, able to get only a quick flash of the lion being pulled in towards Zarkon’s central command.

Lee struggles to push through the block which keeps her from reaching the Black Lion, and also prevents Shiro from being able to move it. She gathers herself, striking at the block one last time, finally able to punch through it. She feels a dark, freezing, and powerful presence engulf her, and terror grips her as she realizes that it is Zarkon who has control of the Black Lion, and she has just literally smashed into his awareness. She can feel as he turns to face her, unable to move, or do anything to defend herself. Then, the Black Lion suddenly shoves her from its mind, and as she re-enters her own consciousness, she slams closed the barrier once again. 

Lee’s eyes snap open, breathing fast as she realizes the close call she just had. She quickly scrambles to her feet as she hears Keith yelling over the coms about Shiro being in trouble. She moves to Coran’s side, pulling up an additional screen to look at what is happening at Zarkon’s central command. She sees the Black Lion being pulled up to the ship, and the purple light surrounding it.

“It’s Zarkon!” Lee cries out, seeing Keith move in to help Shiro. “He’s got some sort of control over the Black Lion!”

Suddenly, Shiro gets ejected from the Black Lion; starting his thrusters up he crashes into the side of the command ship. 

“I’m going for the Black Lion. You guys get the princess now!” Shiro says, and Coran gives them the princess’s coordinates. Before Shiro can move in, however, Lee speaks up over the coms.

“Shiro wait! Don’t listen to what Zarkon says, okay? You do have a strong connection with the Black Lion; much stronger than anything Zarkon could achieve. See, there was one thing that the old paladins, as great as they were, all failed at. They all missed it, but you guys get it. They treated the lions like ships, and that’s it. They couldn’t see, couldn’t understand, that the lions are alive, but only as much as you let them be. Only as much as you believe they are. The Black Lion doesn’t want to go with Zarkon. It believes in you. Now you need to believe in it. And you need to believe in yourself.” Lee implores him to understand, knowing that Shiro has to believe in himself, let go of his doubts and insecurities if he’s ever going to be able to fully complete the bond with his lion, and truly lead Voltron.

Then, Keith goes after the Black Lion by himself, the Red Lion body-checking it away from the beam that pulled it towards the central command. Lee feels her bad feeling erupt from the persistent nagging she’d felt since Allura was taken, to a sharp and stabbing slice of pure instinctual panic.

“Coran I have to go out there! I have to help Keith!” She cries, and she turns to leave, but Coran grabs her arm, stopping her.

“Wait!” He says, and though she is thrumming with the need to get out there and help, she listens. Coran hits a few buttons, enabling the auto pilot and defenses, before guiding Lee down towards the center of the control room. He moves to a different panel, one that was out of the way at the side, and which Lee had never known what exactly it was for. “The old paladins, before they ah-, before everything that happened they were working on making something for you. They weren’t able to finish it, but since we woke up I’ve been working on it in my spare time. It’s not quite finished, but it should be enough to help protect you out there.”

Finished speaking, Coran hits a last few buttons, and an area of the floor slides open, as something begins to rise from it. As it becomes clear to her what it is, Lee gasps, turning to throw her arms around the man.

“Thank you Coran.” She says, and he awkwardly returns the hug, before pushing her back by the shoulders.

“You’re quite welcome Lee. Now, go out there and kick some butt!” He cheers, and she gives him a grin. As he returns to the controls, taking over the castle once more, the doors whoosh shut behind Lee. Coran allows the worry to show on his face, looking over the screen and knowing that all of those kids who he feels responsible for, and cares about, are out there and fighting for not only their lives but the universe. And knowing that all he can do is provide support from the castle, he resolves to be the best support anyone could ask for.

Lee races out to a pod, flying off once Coran opens the hanger door. She pilots the pod towards where she can see the Red Lion. She sees a figure approaching Keith, hears him asks who it is, but the chill she gets as she looks tells her before Coran shouts it.

She sees the Red Lion fire on Zarkon, who blocks it easily, and then fires back, knocking it around. As the Red Lion lands on the ship, and Zarkon and it engage each other, Lee stealthily pilots her pod to land a fair distance away, creeping closer as they are distracted by the fight.

The Red Lion hits the ground hard, and Zarkon forms an energy cannon, preparing to fire. Knowing the Red Lion is in no shape to take another hit, or move away, she closes her eyes. As soon as she does this she will have caught Zarkon’s attention, but she doesn’t have a choice. She reaches out to the Red Lion, reassuring it so that it doesn’t injure itself trying to save it and Keith. She reaches down deep inside herself, calling upon every shred of power she has, she screams as it bursts out of her.

White energy races along the ship, amassing in front of the Red Lion. It forms into her white lion, more massive than any other time she has formed it. When before it was the size of the other Voltron lions, she realizes that this time she is seeing what the Elders must have seen all those years ago; understands now why they considered her so unique, and special. Because standing there is a lion, practically glowing white. The Red Lion looks like a cub behind it, and it dwarfs even the Black Lion. 

As her lion forms, Lee can feel something different this time. Instead of the lion just being a form made of her energy that she controls, this time it feels like the lion is an extension of herself. It feels like she **is** the lion, can feel it waiting in the back of her mind. She pushes herself towards it, a rushing feeling engulfing her, similar to the rush she feels when flying on her disk. When her eyes snap open, Zarkon stands before her, looking tiny in comparison to her newly acquired height. Feeling anger, fear, protectiveness, and a rush of pure power, Lee opens her mouth.

Keith watches in shock as a familiar white energy begins to form in front of him and his downed lion. It grows and grows, bigger than he’s ever seen it, until it stands massive. He looks frantically around, knowing that Lee must be somewhere nearby. As he searches, he spots a figure standing a fair distance away. He squints, the lion helpfully pulling up a screen, zooming in, and Keith’s mouth drops open. It takes him a moment to recognize the figure as Lee.

She stands tall and strong, wearing a different suit than she normally does. It is a silver colour, and resembles suits of armour that knights wear, complete with a helmet, with a see through visor covering her face. On the chest of it is a white outline of a lion’s head with bright green eyes, exactly the same as the one on her pendant. Her braid hangs down her back from under the helmet, but it was her eyes that were most striking, as they glowed with a bright, white light.

The lion suddenly let out a roar so loud Keith had to clap his hands over his ears so he wouldn’t go deaf. The roar was so loud it was heard by everyone contained within the barrier. Lance and Pidge hear it from where they were defending the Yellow Lion, taking a second to glance up. Seeing the brilliant figure, they are inspired to keep fighting harder than ever. Hunk and Allura hear it, and look to each other, Allura grinning brightly. Shiro, lost within the darkness and hallucinations the witch is causing, hears the roar and remembers Lee’s words about believing in himself, finding the strength to not just give up. And Coran up in the castle hears the roar, seeing the white lion on one of his screens, and feels hope, smashing buttons as he lets out his own war cry, rampaging in the castle against the Galran fleet.

“Impressive construct, young one. Let’s see how strong it is.” Zarkon says, before sending a blast straight at the lion. Keith watches Lee’s figure, waiting for her to move, to make the lion do something, but she is still, her eyes still glowing, but not moving at all. As the blast approaches, the lion suddenly moves. Dropping down, it blocks the blast with its shoulder. Hind legs bunched up under it, the lion bursts forwards, only one massive stride needed before it leaps at Zarkon. He moves back, out of the way, but the lion swipes out a paw, swatting him and knocking him backwards.

Zarkon growls, drawing his sword, he flies at the white lion, swiping at one of its legs. It slices the lion’s leg, white energy escaping and drifting away. The lion snarls, Zarkon grinning in victory, when the energy is pulled back towards the lion, reforming it without a trace of injury. The lion suddenly opens its mouth, a blast of white energy flying out and straight at Zarkon. He gets his shield up, but is pushed backwards from the power of the blast. Unfortunately, Zarkon was no fool, and he quickly realized the weak point to aim for. He sends a wave of energy straight for where Lee’s body stands, and the lion leaps, landing between them and blocking the blast.

Keith, seeing that Lee hasn’t moved once during the fight, realizes that Lee must be meditating or something, and knows that he has to get out there, and defend her. He exits the Red Lion, racing towards where Lee still stands, seeing the white lion turn and acknowledge him. As he looks into its eyes, it clicks for him, and he suddenly realizes that it is Lee in there. Knowing that she has his back while he goes to protect her body, he moves in, sword drawn, and ready.

Lee, the lion, blasts Zarkon some more, forcing him farther away from where Keith picked up Lee, the person, and slung her body over his shoulder. He carries her to the Red Lion, getting the both of them inside. Seeing this, Zarkon becomes enraged, sending a barrage of energy at the white lion. It dodges some, but then gets hit, and it yowls as Zarkon keeps up the blast. Keith lowers Lee down onto the floor of the cockpit, taking a quick glance out the window and seeing how the energy is being burned away from the white lion, from Lee as she yowls in pain, he takes hold of her face.

“Lee, it’s okay, you can let go of the lion. We’re both safe inside Red, and I can see Zarkon is hurting you, so just let it go. Come back to me.” Keith says. He leans in, kissing her, and in the back of her mind, Lee hears him, his voice guiding her consciousness back into her body. Kissing Keith back, Lee keeps a fraction of power in the lion, enough that it doesn’t fizzle out quite yet. Keith leans back, lips separating from Lee’s and opens his eyes. He gazes at her, breathing a sigh of relief when he sees her eyes open, and are the stunning green he is used to, not the glowing white, and that she is smiling at him.

Seeing that she is okay, and back to herself, Keith climbs into the pilot’s seat, the white lion finally shattering under Zarkon’s relentless blast. Once it’s gone, he turns his attention back to the Red Lion, firing at it now. The Red Lion leaps out of the way, and Lee wedges herself between the console and the side of Keith’s chair, locking herself in place as Keith pilots the lion around dodging Zarkon’s blasts.

“Keith, get out of there!” Coran cries, seeing how the two of them are in serious trouble now. “Keith, do you copy?”

The Red Lion flies wide, just barely having dodged Zarkon’s blasts, and Keith hesitates, looking down at Lee. He feels rage burn deep inside him, but now that Lee is on board, he doesn’t know what to do. She looks up at him, and he can see the same fire burning in her eyes as she reaches up, ending the com transmission from Coran. Keith grins, summoning the Red Lion’s blade, and its thrusters fire, sending the Red Lion flying straight at Zarkon. He has his sword drawn, but then it suddenly turns into a chain of sorts, the Red Lion desperately dodging, flying around, until Zarkon manages to snag hold of one of its legs, slamming it into the ship. 

The lion crash lands hard, Lee only barely managing not to go pinging around the inside of the cockpit. Alarms blare, the screen flickering in front of them, but not enough to hide the sight of Zarkon drawing his sword. Lee draws in a sharp breath, looking up at Keith with wide scared eyes. Seeing that look on her face, Keith feels a new surge of rage build inside him, and a fierce will to protect her. He turns back to face forward, seeing Zarkon approaching them, and with a cry of rage, he pulls on the controls, and the Red Lion forms a massive cannon on its back.

It fires at Zarkon, who gets his sword up to block it, but he is only able to hold it back a few moments before he is overpowered, the blast sending him flying and continuing on, destroying a large section of the Galran ship far behind Zarkon.

“Whoa.” Keith says, and Lee stares, an awed laugh escaping her. The Red Lion flies back, firing down at Zarkon again, and burning a line into the Galran ship.

“You fight like a Galra soldier. But not for long!” Zarkon yells, flying above them he summons a giant battle-axe, swinging down at them. It slams into the Red Lion, sending it straight down to crash into the Galran ship. The Red Lion lies helpless, immobile as Keith desperately tries to get it to move, and Zarkon descends on them with his sword prepared to deal a fatal blow.

“Come on. Come on!” Keith cries, but then suddenly the Black Lion flies in, blasting Zarkon away. It flies down to the Red Lion, scooping it up in its mouth.

“I got you buddy.” Shiro says, and the two in the Red Lion’s cockpit look to each other, simultaneously sighing in relief as Shiro flies them towards the castle. With Allura safely back inside the castle, they are all more than ready to get out of there. However, nothing happens, and Coran reveals that the barrier is preventing them from forming a wormhole.

As the castle becomes surrounded by Galran ships, Lee stands up, moving to slide herself on Keith’s lap, and wrapping her arms around his neck she buries her face in his chest. She feels him press his lips to her temple, leaving the side of his head pressed to hers, he wraps his arms tight around her back. Both of their eyes are squeezed shut, waiting.

“What just happened?” Pidge asks.

“Who cares? Wormhole!” Hunk demands, and Keith opens his eyes, Lee lifting her face from his chest they look out only to see that the barrier is gone. A wormhole appears in front of them, the castle flying into it. But before any of them can even feel relieved, they notice that something is wrong; the portal is a dark purple with purple lightning flashing around.

“Coran, what’s happening?” Shiro cries, and Keith’s grip tightens around Lee.

“The integrity of the wormhole has been compromised! It’s breaking down!” Coran exclaims, and the two of them meet each other’s eyes.

“What does that mean?” Lance asks, and they are all afraid of what Coran’s answer may be.

“Well it means that we have no control over where we’re headed!” Coran informs them, but any reaction is interrupted as the ship shakes and shudders. With a bang and a crash, the Red and Black lions are sent flying backwards out the open hanger door. Before they go through, Lee is able to see Shiro in the Black Lion falling near them, and the other lions being thrown around inside the wormhole, the castle spinning off course, before they disappear through the side.

Lee slams her eyes closed, burying her face back in Keith’s chest, and she feels him curl around her. As they whirl out of control, potentially being separated from everyone else by light years of space between them, Lee presses her ear to Keith’s chest. Hearing his heartbeat in her ear, she can’t help the relief she feels.

_‘Keith kept his promise. We’re both safe, and I know that no matter where we end up, no matter what happens; we’ll make it through as long as we’re together.’_


End file.
